


Twisted Sight

by Cadilus (Ahsurika)



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Dark, Blood and Gore, Body Horror, Character Death, F/M, Gen, Hokage Uzumaki Naruto, Horror, Madness, Psychological Horror, Sex, Torture, Tragedy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-05
Updated: 2015-02-05
Packaged: 2019-03-23 19:23:55
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 22,449
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13794567
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ahsurika/pseuds/Cadilus
Summary: Gaara was right. Hinata, too, had been right. Even Sasuke, in his way, had tried to show him the truth. They should never have made him Hokage. They should never have let him live. Because he, Naruto Uzumaki, was Tobi's final trump card.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> It's not hard to guess how Naruto ends. The triumph of good, love and brotherhood finding a way, the world (led by Naruto as Hokage) easing into an era of everlasting peace, etc, etc. Sacrifices and destruction, but in the end Naruto's vision succeeding.
> 
> But what if it didn't? What if it all fell apart? Welcome to the warped ending…
> 
> (Disclaimer: This fic diverges at chapter 599 and does not take it, or any successive chapters, into account. However, I can't guarantee that there aren't pieces here and there that match up with the canon.)

_**Three minutes before War's End…** _

**Tobi:**

The death of the man called Tobi is a surprisingly modest affair.

Much more modest than he would have desired. He was  _so close_  to ruling absolutely, to obtaining the truest power, power the other Uchiha had recognized and obtained but always shied away from, power over the  _mind_.

He would have become a god, and with his death would have been the world's end. The end of life, the end of the universe…the end of time itself. But most importantly, the end of  _war_. War, that had taken  _so much_  from the world (so much from  _him_ ) and left nothing but headstones.

Then the Uzumaki kid interfered, and all his careful preparations unraveled in a few short years.

Now there's no one here. No one but the Fourth's brat, the old failure Kakashi, the tailed beasts ( _tools, nothing more_ ), and the youth-obsessed fool to witness a chance at true peace fade.

But he will  _not_  let this boy's victory last.

Every plan must have a fallback, a backup, in the event that the original plan becomes unsalvageable. Tobi likes to think that his is among the more brilliant this world has seen.

_You never suspected this, Itachi. You could never have prepared for it. I hope you're watching…_

" _Dimensional Mangekyo Sharingan_ ," he gasps. His body is melting away with every breath. " _Twisted…Twisted Sight Technique. Spiral…Seal._ "

The Nine-Tails Jinchuuriki hears his voice and leans in. "What's the matter? "

Tobi doesn't answer. Instead, he holds the boy's penetrating glare, even as his Sharingan finally loses its sight.

_Those blue eyes. So clear and bright. They will darken. They will fill with anguish, and hate, and…despair. You will destroy everything you love, everything…everything you fight for, and when…when you finally…understand…when you once again look upon the world…with those eyes…those eyes…_ his _eye…_

**Naruto:**

The Rinnegan's light fades. Its revolving shades of violet slowly pale, leaving only milky emptiness.

Naruto makes a face at the remains of the body. "He's  _gross_."

Kakashi's eyes shimmer even as his expression tightens in anger. "I don't understand. War creates evil out of the best of us, but this twisted monster…"

The three of them watch as the body slowly melts, dissolving, leaving the shadow of a skeleton imprinted in the ground.

" _His drive was as strong as yours, Naruto_ ," Kurama says into the silence.

" _What's_ that _supposed to mean?_ " Naruto growls, offended.

Kurama laughs. " _Don't mistake my meaning, boy. He was as corrupted now as he was on the night you were born…but he didn't begin that way. He began as you did."_

Naruto frowns, worried. He'd beaten Tobi…but he hadn't convinced him. He hadn't shown his enemy the truth. In a way, he'd failed. Could it be possible that his answer…Jiraiya's answer… " _What are you saying? That I might turn out like him?_ "

" _I'm telling you to be careful,_ " Kurama growls. " _I'm telling you that by the time you realize you're on that path, it's long past too late. You won't like this, but…stay away from the Uchiha boy._ "

A tired smile crosses Naruto's face. " _You know I can't do that._ "

" _Then there is little I can do for you,_ " Kurama says sourly, his teeth bared.

Soon, the army arrives – too late to help, but unneeded after all. Wide-eyed, they stare at the ruins of the masked man, the one whose plans had killed thousands and set the world ablaze. They surround Naruto, slap him on the back, laugh in awe and joy, ask him about the battle, and he revels in the calm swell of peace. The war is over.

And yet.

He can't shake the terrible feeling that it isn't finished after all. That the masked man who'd started everything had played one final card.

But he ignores his apprehension. He ignores it because he has no other choice. Because, though the war is over, Naruto has a greater struggle ahead. The greatest battle he will ever fight.

Sasuke is waiting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Stressing once again that this is alternate universe Naruto from here on out. Also stressing that this will be dark. This road to hell isn't even paved.


	2. Chapter 2

_**Four days after War's End…** _

**Sasuke:**

For all his anger, for all his desire to break away from them…it seems strangely fitting that, at the end of all things, Team 7 is together.

His breath comes in short gasps. Even that is a struggle – Sasuke has used so much of his reserves that he couldn't lift himself if he wanted to. He can only see out of one eye – all it took was one moment of indecision, one slight opening, for Kakashi to scorch the other. Whether the blindness is temporary or permanent, he cannot tell.

He can barely remember the fight. Images pop in and out of his mind, fire and explosions and the heart-pounding exertions of hand-to-hand. Sakura, Kakashi…their faces, their fists, their blood. They're still breathing, lying unconscious on the rock, but Sasuke is already looking elsewhere.

For the one who'd found him, time and time again.

Naruto is standing apart. He is trembling with obvious exhaustion, but Sasuke cannot help but notice that he stands straight and tall.

 _Bastard_.  _So he was the stronger_.

Sasuke's vision shimmers, and an odd thought crosses his mind.  _Of course he was stronger. He fought for peace, to break the cycle of hatred that has gripped this world of despair for so long._

Sasuke shakes his head. No. His defeat is unacceptable. It could not have been a mere power contest, he was supposed to be the strongest. Orochimaru, Madara, they'd seen his potential, Itachi had nurtured it, he'd gathered every scrap of power, of strength, and he will  _not_  –

But amid the murky fragments of memory, one scene flares. Naruto, standing before him, a rasengan to match his chidori.

" _After all this time, Sasuke, I'm still here."_

From his position by the cliff's edge, Naruto is watching him. There's no hatred in his stern look, but it's not one that promises peace, either. It yields nothing, hides nothing, pretends nothing.

It's a challenge, and it's the most inviting thing Sasuke has ever seen.

Their paths led them here. Such different roads, yet always to the same destination. To each other, once again. No matter how much, how far Sasuke had run, Naruto always followed.

_Is that so bad? Somehow, his view of me has never changed. Everything I did, and still he just wanted to be stronger than I. I put him down. I left Konoha, destroyed his team, joined his enemies. I did everything I could…_

… _to beat him._

He sits up.

 _No time like the present. Let's go again, Naruto_.

It's as if the blond can hear his thoughts. He grins, a wolfish smile that lights his whiskered face, makes his blue eyes glow with anticipation.

And Sasuke can't help but smile back.

No words for them. Speech would be a waste of breath, extra air interfering with the space between their fists.

But perhaps, just for now, they can put their endless combat to rest.

 _"If only I could allow it to be so_. _"_

Sasuke frowns. He has only a moment to wonder why the voice sounds so familiar before the pain hits.

It's focused and  _sharp_ , a needle ripping into his remaining sight. Its suddenness brings his energy back in a massive rush, and black fire rips the skies above him with a terrible screech. Sasuke screams with it, clawing at his eye, certain that if he can't tear it from his skull he will die.

Better if he does. Somehow, his eye has been cursed, but at least it will finish him quickly, and then its power, if not gone, won't be able to –

"Sasuke!"

They're running to him. He's falling. Whether they can reach him before he enters oblivion only time will –

Sasuke blinks.

He blinks again.

He is alive. More than that, the pain is gone. All that remains is an itch around his blind…no. Not blind.

The world is as it had been before the battle…or longer. He feels  _clean_ , fresh, as if everything that had happened since he fought his brother – since he awakened his Sharingan, even – had never taken place. His vision lacks the exquisite detail it used to have, but in some ways that only makes it better. Less complicated, more pure.

It's a wonderful feeling.

The sun is high in the sky. Hours have passed, that much is clear. Maybe days: free of his dead, cursed Sharingan, he feels like he just woke from a lifelong sleep.

"Sasuke!"

Even Sakura's voice doesn't evoke the irritation it usually does. The thought makes him chuckle as he turns to his teammates.

Sakura's eyes glisten as she laughs, mistaking his amusement for the relief she clearly feels. After a moment, she reaches out to him, placing a hand on his shoulder. Sasuke understands her hesitation: after everything she's been through around him…

Kakashi cocks his head but says nothing. Sasuke nods, ignoring the phantom pain where Kakashi had blinded him only a short time ago. It will be a long time before he and his old mentor repair the damage he's caused, but he's willing to make the effort.

And Naruto, looking even more tired than before, his…expression…

Sasuke blood freezes.

_What have you done?_

They kneel beside him, joy bright in their faces. Sasuke's horror goes completely unnoticed.

"You gave us a shock." Kakashi's words come as if through water. "Overusing the Sharingan was a stupid risk –"

_No, you idiots. I know what overuse feels like. It's not that._

"– and if Sakura hadn't been here, you'd be dead right now." Predictably, Sakura blushes furiously. "We had to remove your eye…a painful process, and we weren't sure…"

Sasuke ignores him – he can't tear himself away from Naruto's eyes.

One blue, and one black.

Clearly unsettled by his rival's intense stare, Naruto grins uncertainly. "You alright, Sasuke? Did the healing work?"

"You have my eye," Sasuke rasps.

Naruto nods enthusiastically, but Sasuke's fresh, wonderfully clean vision sees what lies beneath. Under Naruto's eyes are already the faintest lines of weariness, the slightest shadows revealing the beginnings of the Sharingan's influence.

"I wanted you to be able to see clearly…you couldn't keep the Sharingan in its current state, we needed it out, but then you'd only have one eye, so I lent you one of mine. Figured that's what a good friend should do, right?"

_You idiot. You should have let me pay the price. This can't happen._

His rival - for Sasuke can't deny the truth of it - laughs, spreading his arms wide. "Kurama, though, he can handle it, no problem! I can even see out of it, he healed its vision, but –"

_Not only for the pride of the Uchiha, but also for the sake of Konoha. You have too much power at your fingertips…and it will corrupt you long before you can learn to control it._

Blind though he may sometimes be, Kakashi is no fool. He peers intently at Sasuke, who gives no indication of the ominous thoughts coursing through his mind.  _He might…no. He allowed this. I can't trust him._

_Naruto, my teammates, my…friends…you give me no choice._

An Uchiha curse and the Kyuubi's chakra…Naruto is too dangerous. If he lives, he will bring death to the world. There's no other possible outcome. For the safety of the village, Sasuke cannot allow this abomination to exist. Even if it means his life, his rival's...his _friend's_ life, he must act.

_Wouldn't you agree, brother?_


	3. Chapter 3

_**Sixteen days after War's End…** _

**Sakura:**

Four shinobi guard the hallway to his cell. Four that Sakura can see, anyway, which means at least twice those wait in the shadows cast by the few torches. If the Anbu aren't also keeping watch on the sole ward of Konoha's prison, Tonton has wings.

 _Even without his Sharingan, they see him as a threat_.

A scarred man, a full head taller than she and twice as broad, steps into her path. His craggy face is as suspicious as ever – she'd never made any secret of her feelings for Sasuke.

_He's not this dangerous, I removed his weapon so I know, he doesn't pose a threat to…to…_

"Sakura, child, I don't know what you think you'll gain by –"

She shoves past him without slowing. Nothing will stop her right now. She has to know  _why_.

 _Why, Sasuke,_ why?

There's no door. Just thick bars, steel woven with chakra, and darkness beyond.

" _Sasuke_!" she calls into the cell.

Ringing echoes are the only answer she gets. The torches behind her aren't close enough to penetrate the blackness; beyond the bars, she can make out nothing. "I  _know_  you're awake, Sasuke. Talk to me!"

She's terrified that he won't answer her – that he'll never speak to her again. That –

"Still  _annoying_."

A shadow stirs, detaching itself from the darkened cell, and there he stands.

" _Sasuke_ ," Sakura breathes, relieved.

His aloof, handsome face – even now, covered in a web of scars, it makes Sakura's heart skip a beat – is cold. "What are  _you_  doing here?" he rasps.

 _H-how?_   _That's all you can say to me?_  "T-to understand what  _you're_  doing here."

His unblinking gaze is shuttered, so she continues, "I thought you'd changed. After I switched your – you came back, you promised to help pull the ninja world together. You promised."

Sasuke takes a deep breath. His face is carefully composed, the expression of a man who knows his death approaches and refuses to show he fears it. "I have changed. Everything I do now is to protect the village from –"

" _You tried to kill Naruto!_ "

"And?"

He's hurting her again. Not the cold lightning shivering in her gut, but the bland distaste in his eyes as her thirteen-year-old self begs him not to run away.

She wants to scream, to hit him, to hug him, to stab him, to tear his prison apart, to – anything but to cry.

_Stop crying!_

"Sakura." The hard earnestness in his voice draws her attention. "Yes, I tried to kill him. I entered his house – he still sleeps there, you know – and tried to assassinate Naruto Uzumaki, the Jinchuuriki, Sage, and Hokage. And I'd do it again. If I still had my eye, perhaps it wouldn't have been such a one-sided fight."

If she shakes her head hard enough, maybe it'll knock the words out. Scatter these terrible thoughts. Shake these feelings away.

"I just can't believe I  _failed_. That Sharingan-wielding bastard played both of us and now he's going to destroy everything I—"

"Sasuke,  _stop!_ "

Through her watery vision she can just discern his shock.

_Please, just…_

"I – all you've done the last few years has hurt us. Hurt  _me_. I just…I just want it to  _stop._  Just…I want things to go to how they should be. And you act like you don't want that."

For the briefest moment, his expression loosens. For the first time in all the years she's watched and known him, he shows her his mind.

"I…I'm sorry, Sakura. All I've ever done…I'm sorry."

Her fragile heart splits.

Sasuke cocks his head, a hint of wonder touching his face. His eyes never leave hers. "Odd. I…hmm. Forgiveness is impossible, it has to be, but – it's a strange sensation, to – I can almost imagine wanting it. What it would be like…to get it."

 _It's yours_. "You know I forgive you, Sasuke!" A ray of hope in the confusion of her stormy mind – even she gave up on him once, but there was someone who never did. Someone they trusted and loved. "And you know Naruto will, too. He always has. He understands you. He'll always stand up for you."

 _We can fix this_.

Then Sasuke barks out a laugh.

"You want to believe him, don't you?"

Sakura stares. Her hope vanishes.

"Of course you do. You all do, and why not? He saved the village and did everything he said he would. But who do you think put me here?"

_No._

"You should've seen him. When I tried to kill him. He didn't look betrayed. He looked enraged. Like a ruler who'd – no, like a  _god_  facing rebellion for the first time."

_No, he…he's Hokage. He had to – they made him, the Konoha elders, the Anbu –_

But she can't fool herself. No one  _makes_  Naruto do anything.

"I know what you're thinking, Sakura. It was his  _duty_. They  _made_  him do it. Something's  _off_." She turns away from his pitying eyes – the black of the unfairly-despised and the blue of the boy he tried to kill – but she can't stop herself from listening. "And you know, you're not wrong. It'll nag at you, claw at your deepest thoughts, and because you're not half-stupid you'll figure it out eventually.

"But...not today."

He shakes his head. "You asked why I'm here…I'm here because Naruto wants me to be here. I'm here because he's not himself anymore. The… _friend_  who forgave me is already on the path to destruction, and he's taking me with him."

She can't breathe.

"And it won't end here. A cycle doesn't end with one death."

He smiles, a self-mocking smirk that is agony and fear and amusement and disgust rolled into one terrible expression that sends Sakura fleeing. His last words to her roll up the hall before she can slam the door.

"I'm just the first."

_**Seventeen days after War's End…** _

**Naruto:**

It rains on the day Sasuke is marched to his execution.

Battered and bruised, blood streaming freely from infected wounds, he nevertheless holds his head high. Water traces the scars of surgery, framing his eyes in designs as intricate as any sigil. No shame, no regret line his angular face.

The assembled shinobi watch him like a hawk, but he doesn't acknowledge them. The villagers throw jeers and insults, yet it's clear he shivers only at the wind and cold. He's powerless, he lacks a Sharingan, …and his every step makes it clear that none of those watching are worth his time.

There's only one person whose existence he'll acknowledge.

 _Sasuke_.

Naruto stands at the fore of those assembled – the entire village, if his guess is correct. They all want to see the death of the boy who'd tried to assassinate their beloved Hokage.

Sasuke's execution.  _Sasuke's_.

 _Dammit, I wanted this. Had I known it would be this hard…but I gave him every chance._ Every _chance. I did everything I could to bring him back. Why, Sasuke, why?_

The water on his face is warm.

Lifting a hand for silence, he steps forward. Sasuke watches him. Neither of them has much interest in ceremony, and they both know it. Nevertheless, as the gathered villagers settle into quiet anticipation, they say nothing, letting the seconds drag into minutes.

And because they know each other so well, so intimately, they're both painfully aware that neither of them quite believes that this is happening.

"You know what I'm going to ask you," Naruto finally says. Beneath his thoughts lies an odd sense of calm, of expectation.

Sasuke's blue and black eyes –  _I thought taking the Sharingan from him would save him from madness, not drive him down the path_  – are the only thing in the world. "I do."

"Then answer."

His unblinking stare is beginning to unnerve ( _and_ … _infuriate_?) Naruto. "I'm surprised you still have the presence of mind to care. Or are you just covering your tracks? I'm sure, as Hokage, you'll draw fire from  _somewhere_ , no matter what your views on peace."

 _Just tell me!_  "Dammit, Sasuke, why did you try to kill me?"

The black-haired Uchiha sighs. "What do you want me to say? That I knew I'd never be accepted by anyone in this village except you and Sakura, no matter what I did to atone? That you alone hold more power than any twenty shinobi together? That by winning you failed to end the cycle of hatred?"

His smile exudes both sadness and condescension. "All I know is that I cannot tell you the truth. You won't believe it, because  _he_  wouldn't want you to. Better that Konoha discover the truth on its own, untainted by my words. That way, there might be an end to your reign of terror."

_Very well._

A powerful surge of chakra and the villagers scream, terrified by the all-too-familiar sight of the Kyuubi's strongest weapon.

" _This_  is your response?" Sasuke finally blinks past wide eyes. "You're farther gone than I thought."

Naruto snarls. "I'm all here, Sasuke," he spits through gritted teeth, "and I've made my decision. This ends now."

"Wait." A note of pleading enters Sasuke's voice. "For your sake, at least think about it. I had nothing but my lightning – you had the Kyuubi, a Sharingan, and the entire world at your back. Why would I attack you? The answer's  _right in front of you_."

 _He's right_.

Hesitation –

– and during that pause, he's not alone. Naruto shakes his head vigorously, trying to rid himself of a terrible feeling of being… _recognized_  by something that isn't human. Something that isn't even entirely  _real_. It flickers and shudders beneath his thoughts. The scene before him winks in and out of his uncertain vision.

With one final shake, the feeling disappears.

So do his doubts.

The black-haired boy before him shakes his head in disbelief. "So  _this_  is what it feels like to play the fool. I think we finally understand each other."

Naruto ignores the jab. His Tailed Beast Ball churns above him. "Last words, Sasuke?"

Sasuke laughs – a terrible cackle, high-pitched, tinged with madness and terror. "You can't even imagine the madness you face.  _I_ saw the danger,  _I_ recognized what was wrong,  _I_  tried to act. Only me, heir to the Uchiha clan, strongest shinobi in the world. Eventually you'll get it, Naruto. You're  _nothing_. Just another failure who thought he could force  _peace_."

Fury crawls over Naruto: an odd, detached anger with a cold center.  _No, Uchiha, I haven't failed. You have. Know your despair._

As the explosion rocks the valley, shaking stones and streams of rain from the Fourth's chiseled face, he doesn't even notice that the thought is not his own.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I remember this chapter being a lot more fun to write than I had originally thought it would be. Poor Sasuke.


	4. Chapter 4

_**Nineteen days after War's End…** _

**Hinata:**

_Naruto…_

This is not like him, she knows. She's watched him for far too long not to know when he's acting strange, and Sasuke's death was the opposite of everything he'd stood for until now.

It must be the Sharingan. She knows that as well – her Byakugan has told her much in the past twenty-four hours. The curse is dark in her penetrating vision, a slowly twisting cloud around Naruto's head that makes her sick. It has caused this. It must have.

But did the curse originate with Sasuke, or is there something more sinister at work?

_No matter_. _That is a question for Sakura or Kakashi. My job is to show Naruto the light._

He's sitting at the ramen shop, unsurprisingly, laughing with the store's keepers. They're a little hesitant, reserved, probably as a result of the manner of Sasuke's death. Even so, the new Hokage has always been charming to those with the eyes to see, and their cheer in his company is genuine.

She walks over, her stride slow. She'd once intended to speak to him about her feelings, about  _them_ , but his ascension to Hokage threw her plans awry, and now the knowledge of the curse makes her wary. Dealing with it must take precedence over everything, even her love.

His safety is the most important thing.

"Hey, Hinata!"

As usual, his greeting sends a thrill through her. "Hi, Naruto."

He peers at her. His new dark eye, once Sasuke's, is extraordinarily disconcerting. "What's up, Hinata? You look down. Want to join me?"

"Naruto…"

She twiddles her fingers. Now that she's here, she's unsure just how to proceed. Is she being too forward? She couldn't have missed anything, she  _must_  be correct, but confronted with that smile, that handsome face, she panics. How could she broach such a dangerous subject?

_Naruto would just say it._

"I think you should give me the Sharingan."

He frowns, confused. "Hinata…I took this on myself to ease Sasuke's pain. Even if…it's still my burden to bear. I don't want you to have to deal with it."

"But it's not good for you. It's not safe."

Naruto chuckles, confidence and relief radiating off him. "Don't worry about me, Hinata. Kurama is handling the side effects, and there are no Uchiha alive to control it."

Hinata shivers at how nonchalantly he brushes aside his best friend's murder.  _As if I needed further proof_. "Naruto, listen to me, that eye is  _cursed_. If you keep it, you'll die!"

Her panic seems to have unsettled him. His expression is worried – knowing him, as much for her demeanor as for her words.  _Oh, Naruto_ …

"Are you sure? I mean, how could it…hmm. I guess…you have the Byakugan, so—"

She spots it the moment it happens. The dark pupil expands, pushing Naruto's eye wide open. Within its darkness, Uchiha designs dance, faint symbols that would not be visible to any without the Hyuuga clan's honed eye for detail. And then, as soon as they appeared, the symbols vanish. The eye is normal once more.

But Naruto is not. He stands, all humor gone from his expression.

_And he is completely unaware of the change_.

Fear grips her. This isn't a Naruto she's used to, not one she's ever seen, and suddenly she recalls what he's known for. Hokage and a Sage, the Nine-Tails Jinchuuriki, a powerful ninjutsu user, the boy who'd taken down the masked Madara and true Madara alike, who'd single-handedly turned the tide of the Fourth War, who'd defeated  _Sasuke_. Who on top of all that now possessed a  _Sharingan_.

And still, her friend.

Her breathing settles, determination setting in. It's unlikely he'll accept what she's saying, not with the Sharingan guiding him. Words will not reach him.

"You won't have it, Hinata. I need it. Good day."

_If it means we must fight, so be it._

She pivots, putting out a threatening hand. "Then I will take it from you."

Naruto blinks, shocked, and her heart trembles. "So this is it, then."

Hinata nods. "There is no other way to help you see."

A shadow crosses his face, and when he meets her eyes again his Sharingan is active. The sight of it chills her, and she gulps. "My vision is fine, thank you."

Shaking her head, a tear dropping to disappear in the drying mud of the street.

"You know, I'm surprised to see another friend turn on me. Sasuke, Sasuke…his betrayal at least made  _sense_. And of anyone,  _you_."

_No, Naruto. It may seem like betrayal now, but afterward you will remember that I would never let you down. All I do is for you._

"It's not what you think it is.  _Byakugan_."

She'd aim for the Sharingan.  _There_  was the trouble,  _there_  was the evil,  _there_  was the corruption that had taken Naruto unawares. That eye was the source. She would have to take it out before he took her down. A small target, one that would require extreme precision to reach.

_But everything else is Naruto. I won't miss._

He laughs. It might seem natural, friendly, if not for the eerie red-and-black glare of his borrowed right eye. "You're strong, Hinata, you've proven it time and time again. But I've faced the Byakugan before, and I'm beyond you. You should back down while you still can."

"I won't give in, Naruto," she says, crouching, preparing for what she knows lies ahead. "I won't let you continue down this path. I won't ever give up on the people I love."

_I will help you understand._

"That's my Ninja Way."

**Naruto:**

Their fight isn't a battle. It's murder.

A few deep breaths, a surge of chakra from Kurama, and he has recovered.  _Easy._

Bleeding from a million infinitesimal cuts, Hinata crawls toward him. Every inch elicits a soft cry of agony. Naruto is bemused that she can even move at all – his Rasenshuriken is not kind to its targets, to say the least. Of course, she is – was – strong. He'd always known it.

_Perhaps she was my last battle. Finally, there is peace._

But there's no rush of victory, no contentment. There's only emptiness, a hole lined with regret where satisfaction should reign.

_There_ will _be peace now, won't there? Won't there?_

He looks down, his brow furrowed in his bewilderment. This wasn't Tobi or Orochimaru, enemies through and through. This wasn't even Sasuke, the friend who'd betrayed him, who'd tried to kill him. What was it she'd said?

" _It's not what you think it is."_

This was –

" _Naruto_ …"

Her trembling voice cuts through his anger, through his fear, through the thick cloak of orange energy that he had wrapped around himself.

It cuts him to the core – and beyond, to a part of him he hadn't even known was hidden. It hits him like lightning.

_Hinata!_

Her eyes lock on his, and for a moment he can read her very soul in them. Her love, her regret, her sadness – but not hate, never hate – washes over him, floods him, so deep that he knows he may never surface, that he may drown in it, that he  _deserves_  to drown.

_I didn't – I never – Hinata – you – I'm sorry, I'm so sorry –_

A quiet sigh escapes her, and her pale eyes go blank.

Horror slams into him. Naruto staggers under the blow, trying to regain his balance, stability, understanding,  _anything_ , but there's nothing he can do against the feelings now bombarding him.

_What have I done?_

She knew something was wrong. She fought for his safety. She stood up to him when no one else did, gave voice to the uncertainty and dread that took him in his sleep, forced him to face his fears rather than laugh them aside. All for him.

And this was how he repaid her friendship. Her  _love_.

_I…I killed…Hinata, why?_

Sasuke, regret in the expression behind the crackling lightning he wielded. Kurama, his rage after the battle subsiding into quiet bitterness. And now Hinata.

_It's all gone so wrong_.

No more thoughts of peace. He knows now where that drive has led. He'll resign, he'll submit to the elders' judgment, to Tsunade's, his comrades', anything,  _anything_  to –

A prickling sensation on the back his neck causes him to look up.

He scans the crowd that has gathered, sees their horror, their  _condemnation_. For a moment his vision shimmers, red-tinged from his borrowed Sharingan.

His skin goes cold.

_But of course._

He is a monster, is he not? They have always seen him this way. Always treated him like an animal. When he wanted to be recognized, they scorned him as an outcast. And now he is their monster again. It is just as it was before, when he was young.

_Not quite._

_I am Hokage now. Konoha's chained monster rules._

Footsteps behind him. Slow, erratic, jittery. He can feel it resonating with Kurama's chakra: a terrible anger, rage, hatred, and only  _contained_ , not controlled.

Naruto turns.

It's Neji.

"All she ever wanted…"

His voice is but a ragged whisper, scraping the air between them.

"…all she ever desired…"

Kneeling beside her, he bows his head. The tears flow freely, darkening the dirt, mixing with the red already there. Naruto waits, his heart heavy as stone – and as yielding.

When the jounin lifts his head, his Byakugan are active, and his glare is fierce.

"…was to be like  _you_."

_Yes. I know._

The breeze ruffles his hair. Hinata is dead, dead by his hand, and he knows her eyes will haunt him forever…but he cannot linger on it. He cannot stop now. The village needs him, whether they want it or not.

Neji scratches his fist on the ground, through the shallow muddy pool, and when the pride of the Hyuuga clan, standing, points his fist at his enemy, it drips with his dead cousin's blood.

"No matter what I must do, no matter what it costs me, you, Naruto…will  _die_."

As the words ring in Naruto's ears, Neji vanishes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy shipping!


	5. Chapter 5

_**Twenty-four days after War's End…** _

**Kakashi:**

_We have to halt this madness._

Sasuke was one thing. Trying to kill Naruto was well past the boundaries of sanity, especially after the loss of his Sharingan. The power disparity was simply too great. But Sasuke must have known this – so why strike anyway?

_An Uchiha, Sharingan lost…but with Naruto's clear sight. He thought something was wrong._

Hinata's death was something else, but even that…incident…could be passed over. Not ignored, no – he's known Kurenai for far too long to think she would take her pupil's death in stride. If she weren't so far into her pregnancy, she'd probably already have attacked Naruto.

But Hinata  _did_  strike first – as horrified as they are by Naruto's actions, every eyewitness claims that she was the aggressor.  _A true friend, and a Byakugan-user…_

If it had ended there, they could have taken Naruto to trial, learned his purpose, understood his reasons. The village would have accepted that. But after  _this_ …

"Kakashi!"

 _As I feared_. Heart sinking, he turns.

They're all watching him. Kurenai, arms crossed over her chest, trembling in fury. Guy, cradling the young Hyuuga heir, Hinata's little sister, in a tender embrace she can no longer feel. Ibiki, his usual stony expression frozen into ice. Anko, attended by several Anbu, stands off to the side.

And Tsunade. One hand on her cane, the other arm wrapped around Shizune's shoulders, she looks a shell of her former self and still has more presence than the rest of them put together.

The former Hokage lashes him with her fiercest glare. "Could you have seen this coming?"

Kakashi cocks his head. A flippant remark comes to mind, but he suppresses the urge. In the ravaged Hyuuga residence, watched by dozens of staring, sightless Byakugan, it's simply not the place.

"He's Hokage now," he reminds her. Tsunade winces, and he regrets the words – it wasn't her fault she'd consented to relinquish the position. Not entirely. "I can't force him to keep me in his confidence. He hasn't asked for–"

"Shut up, Kakashi." Guy's voice is serious, which in Kakashi's experience means he's liable to kill someone. "Stop treating him like he's just a boy who won't listen."

Kakashi raises an eyebrow.  _Careful. With Neji's murder, he's lost as much as Kurenai_. "Is he not?"

Guy snarls, a tiger in human form. "Ignore Sasuke if you want, but don't act like this didn't happen. No Hokage of mine walks into a house and slaughters an entire clan."

"Nor mine," Kakashi responds evenly, though he knows they're all thinking of Itachi. Their silence confirms it. And they know the truth of the renegade Uchiha, enough to make them pause at ordering Naruto's immediate slaughter.

 _The_ entire _clan…the only family with eye powers to match the Sharingan…the family whose eyes could strip away any mask._  "But I think you have the right idea, Lady Tsunade. Look at the murders – the identities of those slain. If we investigate—"

"What is there to investigate?" Ibiki grumbles, shifting his massive weight. Kakashi scowls, but Ibiki ignores him. "He's a threat to the whole village now. Tonight it was the Hyuuga clan; tomorrow it might be the Sarutobi." Kurenai flinches, clearly thinking of her unborn child. "Or the Anbu. Then what?"

"Orochimaru returns, and we fight." Anko licks her lips. Caught by her mesmerizing eyes, Kakashi feels the same shiver he'd feel facing a snake. "Akatsuki attacks Konoha, and we fight. Our old masked friend raises an army, and we fight. Yet the Hyuuga are slaughtered, and you hesitate. Has peace made you soft, Copycat?"

"You call this peace?" Kurenai hisses. "Hinata's death, that was  _peace_?"

Taken aback by the other woman's venom, Anko blinks rapidly. "N-no. I only meant—"

"Enough."

They turn to Tsunade. With her hair falling over her face, they can't see her expression, but none miss her trembling. "I thought…I supported him because of his dream. I stepped down gladly, not bitterly, because I know…knew…him. I thought he would make his dream a reality."

"…I…we were wrong."

_Sentence passed. The boy we love is declared dead._

_But then, who am I to judge?_

"Kakashi! Where are you going?"

He lifts a hand as he strides away. "My student. My responsibility. If it must be done, I will do it. Meet me at the Hokage's office in one hour – if I fail, he'll be weakened. Take care of Sakura, Tsunade – you'll need her and Yamato together to restrain the Kyuubi."

 _Naruto, I will strip away this mask_.

* * *

He doesn't go to the Hokage's office.

He's not sure where they'll gather – if they had the elder Nara's tactical sense, they'd convene underground. It's the only place they can hope to avoid the vigilance of Naruto's shadow clones.

Then again, if Naruto has clones watching over the village while he  _sleeps_ , they've already lost.

_This gets me nowhere. Moving does._

Naruto was never comfortable with the place – after all, he only saw the inside when he was in some kind of trouble. Even after his ascension, his appearances there surprise Kakashi, though. The boy would never sleep there if he could help it.

And so Kakashi finds himself watching the door of an apartment building – average, nondescript, one of hundreds that Yamato built in the aftermath of Pain's assault.

The residents of this building likely don't realize they're still housing the most powerful shinobi in the world. Even if they did know, they're innocent as infants.  _If this goes sour…_

No. He will succeed. He has to.

For Naruto's sake.

A whisper, a flutter, and he crouches on Naruto's windowsill –

"Are…are you here to kill me, Kakashi- _sensei_?"

Kakashi pauses.

His target is on the far side of the darkened room, where the moon's light doesn't quite touch him. Curled up in a chair, gazing out at his visitor with baleful eyes, he looks more lost than Kakashi can remember.

Dropping lightly into the room, Kakashi fixes Naruto with a searching glare. "Explain yourself."

Naruto flinches as if slapped, wrapping his arms tightly around his knees. "I…I don't know what's happening to me,  _sensei_. Sasuke tried to kill me, again, and Hinata… _Hinata_ …"

His lips tremble. "I  _killed_  her, Kakashi. She…she…"

He sounds so small, so helpless, that Kakashi almost believes it – no, he does believe it. But he's not hearing everything. "And Neji?"

Naruto doesn't respond.

_It's one thing to kill a man, Naruto, who approaches you with murder in his eyes. It's another to rip off his limbs and paint the Hyuuga seal in his blood in the middle of the street._

"Why did you massacre the Hyuuga clan?"

Blue eye and black watch Kakashi guardedly. "I couldn't trust them – Hinata was not their favored daughter, but I could see their eyes. Kakashi- _sensei_ , they wanted me dead the instant they saw the body. Neji, Sasuke…I thought they were my friends, and they…"

He stands suddenly, pacing. "All I can think of are  _masks_ , Kakashi. People look at me and say one thing, but their eyes say the truth, or their bodies, or…there's nowhere I can turn. I'm  _alone_."

Kakashi nods slowly.

And then he understands.

_The Sharingan. With the Byakugan, they could see something wrong with the Sharingan. But Sasuke was burned out – he couldn't have cursed it himself, if he'd even had the knowledge. Someone else had to, someone else with knowledge of the Sharingan._

_That's the mask Naruto's talking about – not theirs, but_ his _. The one who launched the war was an expert at dimensional manipulation, and what is the mind but simply another plane on which to reside?_

On impulse, he pulls down the cloth hiding his mouth and nose, takes a step toward his student. "This is my face, Naruto. No more hiding. I'm on your side. We'll fix this."

He's never shown his team this face before. Sasuke died without ever seeing it, without ever seeing the weariness, the suffering brought on by decades of a loneliness that was all his fault. He knew it would be too much for Sakura, too familiar for Naruto. It's a burden he'd always wished to spare them.

But his student, Minato's son, needs a different kind of comfort now. Not protection, but openness.

Sniffling, Naruto glances up through his tears, smiling. A full smile, true appreciation. He looks like a man dying of thirst who'd just stumbled into a freshwater pond. "I know,  _sensei_. And…thank you. Please, find Sakura. With her help, we can—"

He freezes. When he speaks again, the voice is not his. "So, my friend. You show me what I feared to see."

Kakashi blinks.  _What?_

In the dim light, one eye seems to be glowing.

Too late, Kakashi realizes the truth.

He'd exposed his Sharingan deliberately, both as a show of trust and to allow him to dive right into combat if necessary, but only now does he realize the threat it would represent to this cursed Naruto.

_No, not just a curse, and not just Naruto._

His heart pounds in his ears.

"But you're honest, Kakashi," Naruto growls, baring his teeth in an eager smile. "This much I'll give you. Even if you couldn't save anyone, at least you recognize it – and you know I'm in here. Don't you?"

Kakashi clenches his fists.  _Looks like I failed after all_. "So this is your revenge. You cursed that eye, knowing Naruto would bear his friend's burden. You twisted their bond that was closer than any you've ever known, turned it into something poisonous."

He narrows his eyes. "If only you'd stayed dead."

Naruto lets out a low, hissing laugh. "Make sure of it next time, then. The powers of the Uchiha are a  _wonder_ , aren't they?"

Suddenly, the maniacal rictus of amusement vanishes, leaving only a faint frown on Naruto's face. "It's strange. The Hyuuga, Sasuke, even with the girl…I didn't need to fight this hard to make him believe. His doubts hinder him, eat away at him, and when he's killed  _you_ , another of his precious ones…I don't know if I can…

"You're a failure, Kakashi…and yet, somehow…"

 _Rin…Third…_ sensei…

But they are gone, all of them, and he is alone.

_Obito._

Dead. He should have been  _dead_...

An orange shroud, darkened and stained with Sharingan designs, springs into existence around the young Hokage, enveloping him, consuming him.


	6. Chapter 6

**_Twenty-four days after War's End…_ **

**Sakura:**

_"You may not come with us, Sakura."_

Right, left, right, left.

They're going to kill him, and there's nothing she can do about it.

No, not just kill him, to hear the Anbu talk about it. Interrogated, of course. Strung up to a lamppost by his ankles, tortured for sport, used as a test subject for experimental jutsu. Locked up, to keep the Kyuubi shackled until a replacement container could be found. Only then would he be unceremoniously slaughtered, his body left to the crows.

Then they'd search for the source, try to discover which of the other villages was behind this corruption, take revenge for Naruto and for the Hyuuga and even for Sasuke, dig up the real enemy no matter what the cost.

So much for the end of war.

_"Master, I – you know how he feels about me, if –"_

_"But I also know how you feel about him. Can you truly tell me that you want to see him dead, that you want vengeance for Sasuke? Will you really use his love for you against him, even with all that's happened? With what he's become? Open up your heart and let me see."_

And they dare ask her – command her – to stand aside. To push her  _heart_  aside.

Right, left.

_"I thought not. You're not going. My word is final."_

They'd make her watch as her best friend, her teammate, her…whatever he is to her now…is taken from her.

Her next punch has chakra behind it, all but disintegrating the wall into a dusty haze before her. Not that she'd be able to see it anyway, not with the tears blurring her sight.

And now she's  _crying_  again. The hell with  _all_  of them.

There's no choice for her, and she knows it. There's only one course of action she can take. Anything else will end with her in a cage, if not in an unmarked grave. Of course, this way she'll  _still_  end up in either, more likely than not. But this way, at least she'll get to speak to Naruto. On her own terms.

_Master…Tsunade. I'm sorry._

She's at a run almost before she makes her decision. The ground drops away beneath her as she bounds forward, racing against time she doesn't have. As long as she can get to Naruto, she'll…what? What can she possibly do against his death sentence? Help him fight them off? Not likely. She'd have betrayed Konoha for –

–  _I_ don't _want to see your face, Sasuke! You've hurt me enough without reminding me how wrong I was..._ –

– but that was a long time ago, before she'd figured out who she was and who she could be, and besides, she can't imagine she'd ever have taken up arms against the village…

So she'll be there, with Naruto, refusing to let them take him without a fight, hesitating to attack her fellow shinobi, just being a nuisance once again.  _You're such an idiot, Sakura._

Besides, she's not  _entirely_  sure she doesn't want to just take Naruto down herself. Tsunade can believe what she wants – she's forgetting that Sakura, like her mentor, is willing to use a weapon out of love. Sakura's done it before.

Like she could ever do it again.

_As long as we're together at the end…_

If only she could convince herself that's enough.

 _But it'll have to be_. Sakura sighs, trying and failing to exhale the heavy sorrow that keeps clamping onto her heart.  _I just have to be there_.  _The rest…_

She's sprinting across the plaza toward Naruto's apartment when the world goes white.

**Kakashi:**

_I should have seen it immediately. As soon as he locked Sasuke up._

He dodges, throwing himself into a roll. The instant his feet meet firm ground he springs off toward the trees. Energy shrieks behind him, burying itself a hundred feet in the dirt. Even with his eyes closed and his back to the explosion, its afterimage sears the inside of Kakashi's eyelids.

_Sasuke was brilliant and strong. Stronger than me. And he knew he never stood a chance against this._

The earth heaves, leaping and roiling as if an enormous fist were slamming against it. Kakashi has to use an alarming amount of chakra just to stay standing.

Attack is useless. None of his thousand techniques will make a dent in Naruto's defenses, and his Sharingan eye is already bleeding. He can't block the Kyuubi's power. He can't copy sage techniques.

And even if he could, the damage has been done. Justice perverted, a clan senselessly annihilated, and the most beloved ninja in Konoha (if not the world) gone mad. Killing Naruto now, were it even possible, would only put them back to square one, to a world torn by war and disillusioned with peace.

_Naruto has to fix his dream himself._

_Somehow..._

The next tree branch snaps the instant his foot connects with it. As he struggles to reorient himself, Kakashi realizes that he can't rely on anything around him. With the trees at the mercy of Naruto's earth-shaking attacks, the entire forest could collapse at any moment.

Something behind him sucks the air away, and his momentum dies. For a long second, the world holds its breath. Kakashi, who knows immediately what's coming, can't draw his own.  _Oh_.

_At least I'm outside the village –_

Light flares.

Brighter than the desert sun, it paints the terrain before him in sharp colors, each tree and blade of grass stark and shining. Even facing away, the flash makes him squint. Kakashi's ears ring as if there's no other sound in the world.

Then the shockwave hits, and the world loses all meaning.

His left hand catches in a branch almost twice his size and tears away in a spray of blood. Kakashi spins, legs twisting, and a tree the size of a house crumbles into charcoal an instant before it would have hit him. Something pops in his back. A hundred knives stab his torso, either pebbles or splinters of wood.

A rush of wind crashes into his ears.

Then nothing.

* * *

He hears the crackling of the flames.

Whatever happened, it set the trees around him ablaze. All of the forest that he can see is on fire.

It's all he can feel, too. There's only a phantom tingle where his legs should be, though judging by their mangled and shattered appearance Kakashi is willing to consider that a blessing. The ripped stump of his arm, though, that hurts. And pain shoots through his torso with every labored breath. If he weren't half upright, propped up by smooth stone, he's not sure he'd still be able to breathe.

 _Unless Sakura or Tsunade shows up in the next minutes, I'm dead_.

Straining, he turns his head.

 _Well. How appropriate_.

He's leaning on the Konohagukure Memorial Stone. It gleams in the firelight, liquid flames dancing on its dark stone. A few pieces have been chipped off, but even in the dim glow Kakashi can tell that the names are still there.

When he looks up again, he's no longer alone.

Naruto kneels beside him and grips his head, fingers slowly pressing at the skin around his Sharingan.

Not just slowly. Not hesitantly, either. They're intermittent, jerking movements, as if trying to decide between caressing and clawing.

_Keep fighting him, Naruto. I'll do my part._

He grabs the back of Naruto's neck with his remaining hand and pulls him close. Naruto stare goes glassy, but from not from shock. Kakashi surges with pride – his student is fighting as hard as he is, struggling to defeat the foreign power in his mind.

Then Sasuke's Sharingan flickers, and Naruto's blue eye darkens. He's losing.

_Fighting to an inevitable end, just like your parents. But I couldn't do anything, then._

Kakashi's first words come up as blood, but he knows the phantom Uchiha understands regardless. "Do you know where we are, friend?"

Naruto jerks out of his grasp, and Kakashi slumps. Only his remaining arm draped on the memorial keeps him off the charred dust.

A laugh, wet with fluid, rips his insides. "I stood here every day, remembering my comrades. Thinking about them, about what they did. Their lives. Their deaths. Why they died." His lungs can't handle a full breath anymore, pain blooming anew with every attempt. "Why I didn't."

Naruto twists wildly, desperate, somehow forcing the memorial to stay in sight of his Sharingan. Kakashi slides further, all strength gone from his arm. "You wonder if…worth it. Wonder…what you're supposed to do."

When his student, the sixth Hokage, faces him, his blue eye is bright. "I'm sorry, Kakashi- _sensei_."

_They won't let you live. They can't. But you know that. You understand. Tell them. Tell them –_

"Naruto, I believe in you."

The boy's -  _he's beaten you, Obito_  - grieving expression follows him into darkness.


	7. Chapter 7

_**Twenty-four** **days after War's End…** _

**Sakura:**

_Stop._

A dull thud, and she's showered in dirt. She stumbles several yards before regaining her feet.

 _Naruto, no_.

A piercing whine screams in her ears. Purple and green blotches in her vision, dark shapes moving in the painful blankness. Terror takes over. This light…it isn't pure, cleansing light. It burns.

The ground bucks again beneath her. Sakura stumbles – and then what feels like an enormous hand picks her up and  _throws_  her. The world spins, the stars and buildings whirling into a meaningless blur of direction and space.

A wall, breaking behind her –

Stones falling soundlessly –

Movement in front of her, a shape darting forward –

Sakura blinks. Slowly, fighting her uncooperative limbs, she crawls to her feet. The combat has brought her to the edge of the village. To the forest.

What used to be the forest.

Every tree for a half mile in front of her has been obliterated, nothing but craters where they stood. Smoke rises from thousands of others as they burn, the fire reaching to block out the stars.

Unable to hear, shaking so badly she can barely feel the ground beneath her, Sakura gapes at the terrible sight. Her stomach heaves, and she falls to her knees, retching violently. When she tries to breathe, she inhales only ash and dust, and her coughing begins anew.

But she has to go on. No choice.

One halting step after another, she staggers toward her team's fate.

* * *

Ash coats her shoulders, nestles in her hair, and lifts from the ground with each fall of her boots. Some of it is finer, a whispering sand that used to form some of the sturdiest rocks in the forest. Unlike the dull ash, it glitters faintly in the moonlight.

Sakura's steps are even, deliberate. Steady, without rush or hesitation. There's no room for anger, or grief, or even heartbroken hatred. Not even a sense of purpose. There's only the inevitable.

This far from the heat of Naruto's destructive attack, charred stumps and broken branches still litter the ground. Here and there a tree has escaped the firestorm: roots pulled up from the ground, branches hanging limply. Strong enough to endure the shockwave, but not to survive it.

As she walks toward Naruto, who lies in the dust some twenty yards from Kakashi's bloody and mangled body, all she feels is numb.

_Too slow. Again I fell behind. Again I couldn't help. Useless._

The dead air mutes even the smell of burning.

She crouches by her teammate's prone form, a kunai flipping into her hand. There's only one thing left to do.

_This is how Team 7 ends._

She looks to his face. Naruto's eyes are open and staring.

Maybe he knows she's there, maybe not. It doesn't matter. It won't change a thing. The friends he killed. The clan he slaughtered. The mentor he turned on. As a Konoha kunoichi, it's her duty to see him dead…and because, in spite of everything, he is her friend, she'll do it herself.

Then she stops. Not his eyes.

His  _eye_.

And it's his, too. Not the dark one he took from Sasuke, the bottomless pool whose depths masked a lifetime of pain and anger and cruel indifference. There's only a scratched, bloody socket where that one should be. No, Naruto's remaining eye is the blue, layered in a guilty shadow.

A layer that thickens when he recognizes her.

"I beat him, Sakura," the blond teen mumbles, and something in his voice tells Sakura he isn't talking about their dead  _sensei_.  _Or is this just my own stupid wish_? "He wanted to control me, wanted to destroy my dream. But I took him out."

And then cold understanding creeps into Sakura.

_Oh._

_OH_.

Her hand glows dark blue, the color of the sea at the Land of Waves, as she places it against his forehead. If it's risky to delve into a shinobi's consciousness, it's dangerous to pry into one as strong as Naruto's. With the Kyuubi unchained in his mind and who knows what else lurking in Naruto's subconscious, it'd be suicide for most.

But her teachers and team have made her one of the best kunoichi the world has ever seen…and if there's one thing she's always known, it's that Naruto will  _never_  hurt her.

She encounters no enemy, but the signs are there. Many, obvious signs. A memory glowing with Uchiha designs, a stray thought that could never have come from Naruto's earnest idealism. There's a darkness lying over his prankster's humor and unwavering loyalty…just a shadow, sickening remnants of the curse that had afflicted him.

_Mind control._

It had been in the Sharingan, the one he took. That's why Sasuke tried to kill Naruto. Hinata must have seen it too, with her Byakugan…which in turn made the whole Hyuuga clan into targets. And Kakashi…

Naruto must see her thought process on her face. His blue eye, so bright and clear, fills up with tears. "But I – I wasn't…Sakura. The things I've done all happened, didn't they? No, of course they did. I did them. I killed my friends, I killed a whole clan, and I even –"

" _Naruto_." Sakura cradles his head to her chest, her own eyes watery. "I don't know what'll happen. I can't tell you it'll be okay. Even if they believe you, a lot has…you've done too much. In the last week and a half…"

She fights down a sudden surge of loss and revulsion. She  _will_  believe in her teammate.

"…the village won't accept you back. Not after this."

He doesn't even flinch. "They'll kill me."

His trembling hand flutters against her cheek, and she drops her kunai to grab it as tightly as she can. "Whatever happens, we face it as a team."

Naruto's chuckle comes out as a cough, but on his face is a smile. "No. I'll give myself up. I don't need to be in charge of my dream anymore. If I face its justice, if my life is needed to bring about peace…"

He passes out before she can protest his stupidity.

Gritting her teeth, Sakura floods her hands with chakra. A preliminary scan for any physical injuries her mind-dive would have missed. It reveals the strain from overusing powerful techniques, the burns Naruto sustained when he destroyed the forest. It leads to the stained eye clutched in his hand.

_He did it. The madness is over._

If he leaves, becomes a missing-nin, he has a chance. Sasuke survived with the whole world arrayed against him. Naruto can do the same while she works to clear his name. It will take years, but she can do it.

She just needs to get him out of here before anyone else –

"Sakura Haruno, move away from the boy."

Ibiki's voice rumbles like a bear's from somewhere behind her.

This is her chance to convince them, to tell Konoha the secret behind Naruto's madness.  _Don't turn. Talk. Talk before they attack._ "Ibiki, it's over. The Sharingan that Naruto took from Sasuke was cursed with mind control. It's been forcing him to kill anyone who could've revealed it was there, including Hinata and the Hyuuga clan and-"

"Hush, girl." Anko's amused hiss cuts her off, and Sakura's hopes falter.

She looks behind her.

There are five of them. Ibiki is already wearing brass knuckles; even from this far she can hear them buzz with chakra for gods-know-what techniques. Anko twirls what appears to be a needle in her fingers. The other three are Anbu – she's not sure which, so all she knows is that they were strong enough to be sent after Naruto.

Individually, Sakura is stronger than any of them, but Anko and Ibiki are specialized jounin. Between her poisons, his torture techniques, and whatever specialties the Anbu have, they'll get past her. To Naruto.

Dropping Naruto's hand and picking up her kunai, Sakura stands and turns to face them. If there are more, she won't know it until they kill her. She'll just have to hold out as long as she can against all five.

Her thoughts must show in her face, because Ibiki's visage turns even grimmer. "I see. There won't be any convincing you."

Sakura nods, and the cold weight of inevitability settles in her stomach. "Yes."

Anko looks up from her needle, eyebrows arched. "You'll die for him?"

Anxiety tickles her stomach, and she tries to swallow past the lump in her throat. The word comes out a strangled whisper. "Yes."

The five spread out to encircle her. "For what it's worth, Sakura," Ibiki says, his gruff voice sounding almost apologetic, "I believe you. I can tell you speak truth. But it doesn't change what he did. A clan is dead because of him, a weapon we can't control. Konoha won't accept anything but –"

Infusing her right arm with chakra, Sakura slams a fist into the ground.

A loud  _boom_ , and ash leaps from the ground for a hundred yards around her. Sakura's eyes dart this way and that, watching for the slightest shift in her makeshift cloud.

 _Separate them. Blind them. Force them to fight on my terms_.

Ibiki's massive frame barrels through the ash on her left. Shoving Naruto with a flick of her foot, Sakura leans into his attack, meeting his brass-knuckled fist with her own. The shockwave tosses both of them back.

_Naruto!_

Without hesitation Sakura hurtles herself back toward his prone body, reaching it at the same time as Anko. The jounin's eyes widen as Sakura shatters the needle between her fingers.

" _Don't touch him!"_

A quick barrage of blows, each twice as strong as the previous one, forces Anko to the ground, but before Sakura can finish her off a meaty hand grabs her wrist. Gasping, she tries to wrench her arm back in vain. With a contemptuous snarl, Ibiki hurls her over his shoulder.

Years of training with Tsunade, however, have given Sakura not only enormous strength but some of the finest chakra control in the village.

When Sakura's kunai hits the ground, it sends its payload screaming through the earth, whipping ash a hundred feet into the air. Anko, another needle –  _certainly poisoned_ – inches from Naruto's flesh, is thrown into Ibiki. By the time they regain their feet, Sakura has already grabbed Naruto's arm.

But he's dead weight, and Anko is quick as a viper, and snakes sprout from her arm and though Sakura manages to decapitate one the others dig sharp, wet fangs into her thigh. She can feel the poison immediately, coursing through her with alarming speed.

_Powerful, but I can handle it. I was taught by Tsunade and Shizune._

Her hand glows green with healing chakra –

A  _clang_  shatters her concentration, and bright lights scatter her thoughts. Blinking, Sakura searches for the source, belatedly realizing that it came from her foes.

_Torture techniques. Ibiki's specialty. Anything that'll break my concentration, keep me from healing, so that Anko's poisons can slowly eat away at me..._

An involuntary shudder takes her body. Not _so slowly._

"You've lost, little girl," Ibiki growls. He grabs her by the throat and, lifting her in the air, begins to squeeze. "We'll be-"

He lets out a howl as her toe connects with his shin, the impact strong enough to break bone. He stumbles, dropping her to the ground, and she jabs with focused chakra, this time blowing a fist-sized hole through his forearm. Blood and bone coat her fingers as she prepares another punch, coughing through her bruised windpipe. This one will kill him.

The punch never touches him. A whisper of movement behind her, and she throws the punch instead at Anko, whose snakes brush Naruto's hair before she leaps back to evade. Sakura wills more chakra into the strike, molding the earth as she hits it. The impact of Sakura's fist against the ground launches shards, harder and sharper than diamond, at the two jounin. At least one grunts.

When she turns to look, peering through the dust, she sees that while her attack was successful, they're still standing.

A frustrated cry escapes her. Their plan is obvious, mirroring her own.  _Divide and conquer_.  _If they separate me from Naruto, he's dead. They're willing to kill him even if it frees the Kyuubi. But without room to maneuver, I can't defend him._

It's an impossible dance, one that she can't keep up forever. The instant one of them decides to sacrifice themselves for Naruto's life, they'll have him. She'd have lost already regardless if the three Anbu with them had attacked.

The three Anbu, who seem to have vanished from the field. _Where are they?_

Anko and Ibiki attack again, both focusing on her this time, and in her exhaustion she can no longer hold them off. More fire sears Sakura's arm – a poisoned kunai. She roars in pain, throwing a chakra-packed punch that vaporizes a cloud of ash but hits nothing more. Another needle pierces her. Another. She focuses a quick healing technique, something to block out the growing pain of the poisons mixing in her blood.

A blinding flash of light, and Naruto stands in front of her.

It's unbelievably good, especially for how brief a time the jounin had had to construct it. From the scratches and burns to the wrinkles in his orange jumpsuit to the way the blood has dried around his empty eye socket.

It almost makes her hesitate.

He grins, and the cheeky expression is so heartbreakingly  _him_  that she wishes it were real. "I got them, Sa-"

Sakura lets loose a burst of chakra, focused in her fist, and half Naruto's torso disintegrates into gory dust. She shakes her head. "Don't you remember my test scores, Ibiki? I can see right through your genjutsu."

Ibiki's eyes seem to pop from his scarred face; wide and staring, their light is already fading. He tries to speak, but a quiet gurgle is all he manages before he topples over.

The poison in Sakura's blood squeezes her veins, but now she can heal it. If only -

Fangs rip into her legs, tearing flesh and muscle, and Sakura collapses like a puppet with cut strings. Desperate, wracked with pain that burrows deep into her nerves, she flings her kunai, charged with enough chakra to make its atoms shiver at the seams, at Naruto's body.  _I will not...let you take him._

A vicious electrical hiss, a choked cry of surprise -  _a female voice_  - and an eardrum-shattering  _thump_. Then silence.

Sakura blinks. She's done it.

It's over.

Her body is shaking, blood leaking from half a dozen wounds. She's too far gone to heal herself, let alone anyone else. If Naruto's poisoned, he'll die too before long. If he's even still alive.

_I see._

No air. No energy. The light of the moon seems dimmer than it did. Sakura knows she's dying.

_At least we...die together...just the two of us. This...is how Team 7..._

* * *

Hands under her arms, dragging her. Hands black as pitch, seemingly insubstantial. Though her vision is blurring, she can just make him out with the moon behind him.

_Zetsu?_

With her head slumped forward onto her chest, she can barely see three bodies lying motionless in the ash.

 _So that's...what happened to...the Anbu_.

"Zet...su…how...you…"

"Shh." He's holding something in his hand. By the curl of his fingers, something round. "We're not done with you. Either of you. The world needs to understand why we need peace, you see. Mother will show them all. We just need you and the Uzumaki. Oh, and the Uchiha tool."

Crouching beside her, he waves the Sharingan in front of her eyes. His wide grin is nightmarish. "We don't need you in his thrall for long. Just for a year or so, maybe less. Then you're all hers."

_Please. Let me...die. Don't -_

Hot agony blasts her vision into nothingness.

* * *

She's alive.

_Ah. I was wondering when he'd show up. An ally indeed._

Mumbling incoherently, Sakura lifts her hand to her stinging eye. It gets halfway there before lowering back to the ground.

_Now now, kunoichi, keep your hand to yourself. Or I'll have you cut it off._

The Sharingan. Zetsu forced the Sharingan into her. And Tobi isn't dead. Whatever Naruto did, he isn't dead.

 _Of course not. If I'd been out there much longer, then maybe. Useless speculation. Now, I want you to go to Naruto_.

Alarm explodes within her, but she's helpless to resist. Maybe if she were stronger, if she hadn't used so much chakra in her defense -

_Even if you were stronger, I'd still possess you long enough to control Naruto with a durable genjutsu. One that might last years. He's so gullible, you know? As it is, it'll be a long time before you can try to stop me, and by then..._

Her gut heaves at the terrible irony. Hadn't Kakashi told her, back in the beginning, that she was a genjutsu type? How wrong he was, she'd come to learn - but now...

She'd use a genjutsu on Naruto. The same thing Tobi had been doing for weeks, but from  _her_. The person Naruto trusted beyond all others, even himself.

He's lying where her last blow had flung him. The bloody lids are closed, but with a sickening feeling Sakura sees that neither is empty. Her breathing quickens. When he opens his eyes again, she suspects, one will be his blue...and the other her pale green.

Before she realizes it, she's several seconds into weaving a complex technique. It's not just mind control - it touches the subconscious, vision, dreams. It thrums with power, taking chakra reserves she didn't know she had and hurling them into...somewhere. Reality shimmers.

The voice laughs.

_About time you lived up to your potential. You can finally stand with your teammates, Sakura. Not behind them. Beside them._

"I'm sorry, Naruto," she says, and though the voice that speaks is gloating, she means the words. Every ounce of her will fights what she's doing – she'd never wanted this, her body is taking a step she cannot undo – but the shadowy whispers in her ear and mind and muscles don't care, and they own her.

"My nightmare is your reality.  _Seal_."


	8. Chapter 8

_**? days after War's End…** _

**Naruto:**

He's lost.

Lights, lights that float on the breeze. A drop of blood in his mind, clinging to a single point. Dead people speak to him, but Naruto can't see who they are. He doesn't let himself.

They've kept him as Hokage. He doesn't understand why, but that's a secondary concern – he knows that if they still need him, he will give them everything. He'll protect his village. His commitment, his mission, his hopes, it all remains unchanged while his eyes are open. When he dreams, he's not so sure.

If they are, in fact, dreams at all.

When he announces Sakura as his personal assistant, Rock Lee protests. He comes running with clear lethal intent. Leaving his weights behind, he's faster than the wind, implacable as an avalanche, deadlier than a storm.

Naruto lets him get close before releasing his chakra.

The village watches silently, disbelieving, glancing uncertainly at each other. None move a muscle – though Naruto later has the distinct feeling that Lee was not the only one in the crowd to attack him.  _It can't be_ , he tells himself, he can only recall Lee. Besides, there's only one crater. Isn't there?

That night, Sakura comes to his room.

She pulls him down, tearing at his zipper, and the animal within him emerges. Their sex is wild, desperate, hungry. Her moans make him tremble as he pushes himself inside her and thrusts again and again, her nails clawing bloody furrows into his back, and their climax blows away any doubts he had.  _She's on my side._

Two days later, the scratch marks are gone, and Rock Lee challenges him to a duel.

In the hours after he kills Lee again, a red-eyed Ino begins to flirt with him. He plays along, swallowing the guilt of this infidelity, even though he knows – thinks – prays – it will never get that far. Of course, she's not doing it for pleasure. Oh, she pursues him convincingly enough, but he has Kurama's chakra, and he knows her feelings. He can feel her boiling hatred, and he revels in it, because to react any other way would drive him mad – and because it feels so  _good_.

One passionate night, during a successful seduction, she uses the Mind Transfer Technique on him. Naruto watches, grim, contemptuous, as the burden of Kurama's rage devours her soul. Her screams echo in his mind, and he feels nothing.

The next day, he has a kunai wound on his chest, Sakura's scratch marks are back, Ino is alive, and he knows beyond a doubt that the blonde has never flirted with him in his life.

The day after, both Ino and Chouji are dead, and he toasts the war's end with Shikamaru. An inky shadow watches from a nearby fruit stand, and he knows the Anbu no longer support their Hokage.

That night, he sends shadow clones to kill Sai. They report success, and he sleeps deep and well. When he awakens, Sakura reminds him of his meeting with the Anbu leader – their former teammate, Sai.

Sai – who frowns at Naruto's paranoid suspicions, who has no memory of his death, nor of any espionage on Naruto's person. He swears loyalty, putting a curse mark on his forehead for good measure.

Surprised, Naruto accepts, and Sai departs. The next week is a blur as he falls ill – at least, he thinks he is ill, there can be no other explanation for his inability to remember  _anything_ – and when he comes to his senses, Chouji has carried out his orders and slaughtered the Anbu.

Or maybe the Anbu killed Chouji. But then how can he see Sai and Chouji drinking to Shikamaru's memory?

And how could Shikamaru join them?

Another week passes. More people die, and return, and slay each other once more. Another. Kunai fly at him from the shadows, but he is already moving, and their owners drop as other dimensions stop their hearts. Another. A toast, and a table of samurai shriek, the acid boiling their blood even as he purges it from his. Another.

Shizune's eyes, narrowed with contempt. A red sky. Tree branches snapping, their creator failing for the last time to seal the Kyuubi. Tsunade. He finds the secret lair of the Uchiha, and a dead clan's last hideout burns.

A part of him knows something isn't right, that somewhere along the line, he lost something precious, something vital…but he can't place it, it's like trying to catch fog, he knows it's there, there's more than he could ever grasp but every time he closes his fingers he holds  _nothing_ , and it hides itself, and –

He clings to Sakura, the only constant in his ever-shifting reality, wishing that they could just leave. There's nothing for him here, nothing but her, but he stays because he knows he must.

He must.

For if he doesn't rule, if he falters in the pursuit of his ideals, how will there ever be peace?

Then one day, Konohamaru puts a rasengan in his gut, and he collapses in the street.

**Sakura:**

He lies in her bed, she sits by his side, and she can't decide whom she hates more.

She should have known he would pull through, that the Sharingan's control couldn't last forever. He's methodical, slow, as inevitable as the sunrise. Underneath all that's happened to him, all he's done, he's still the same Naruto. Fighting to the bitter end for a brighter tomorrow.

Sakura smiles. Her demon fox is so  _strong_.

Perspiration lines his drawn face. He shifts, letting out a soft whimper at the still-bleeding wound. His one-time pupil hit him hard, and no one, alive or dead, knows better than Sakura: even the Kyuubi needs time to regenerate.

A part of her wants to let him bleed. To open the gaping wound and let it flow until no life remains, until his shivering body stills. It's as tempting as it is horrifying.

But it would bring peace, would it not? At the announcement of his death, the village will throw a celebration, if they still remember the meaning of the word. They'll recognize that she was his pawn all along, and in their need for a leader they'll turn to her, last remnant of the proud Sannin, and –

 _NO_ , she snaps.

The inky chasm in her mind watches her, silent, and she smirks. A month ago, it would have completed the thought. Three months ago, it might have carried out its will and called it hers.

Slowly,  _slowly_ , she's beating the Sharingan's curse.

 _You're resilient_.

Sakura swallows. Not as much as Naruto – all Tobi could do was corrupt him and influence his actions, never control them completely. But this isn't the first time she's had more than one mind in the same body.  _I'll beat you, just as he did_.

Trickles of amusement run into her thoughts, and she gasps as her hand moves of its own accord to Naruto's throat, her fingers playing around his windpipe.  _Will you_?

With a cry she wrenches her hand away and locks it in a death grip.  _You bastard. You're_  dead.  _All I need to do is wait you out._

_Can you?_

Of course not. Sakura knows her defiance is hollow. Her resistance to the curse's control is growing, but it might already be too late for her psyche. It wasn't entirely Tobi who'd wanted to let Naruto bleed into the sheets.

If it had been the Uchiha at all.

And there are Zetsu's words to consider, too, the things he had said when she lay dying in the ash. She has weeks, maybe a month or two, before their plan is complete. She can't afford to wait, either.

The dark haze sighs.  _You're tiring, kunoichi. If you think this will fade before you've made Uchiha Madara look like a village healer—_

"Sakura?"

His eyes are open – his blue and her green, flicking wildly about the room. Sakura takes several deep breaths, suppressing the urge to stab him. "I'm here, Naruto. You were wounded."

Naruto nods.

His eyes are wet.

Sakura stares, breath hitching in her throat.

"Konohamaru."

_Sounds to me like he wants you to kill the boy. It'd be—_

Shaking her head, Sakura puts a hand on Naruto's chest, tenderly, firmly. "Hush, love. Don't worry about him. He'll never see me coming if I –"

"If it'd been just a little stronger, he'd have killed me."

Sakura freezes. He doesn't sound angry. His tone isn't triumphant, or regretful, even disappointed. He sounds like a teacher who's secretly proud, who yearns to say so but withholds it because his student hasn't quite achieved his full potential.

It's as close to the old Naruto as she's seen since that night in the woods, maybe since the end of the war.

Naruto tilts his head to look directly at her. Clear, direct, his gaze makes her heart race. "I…I screwed up, Sakura. I didn't mean to, but…I…"

Sakura swallows several times. She can  _feel_  Tobi watching her thoughts. "There's nothing we can't do together, Naruto. Whatever you messed up, we can correct it."

He shakes his head. "I can't fix this. I want to go back, I want to dream again. But I can't. I have to believe that…I did this for a reason, it  _was_  my dream…"

Naruto's facial muscles work, and Sakura remembers again that he's fighting as hard as she is.  _Of course he is. I put him in a genjutsu, and he's breaking it. He's winning, just like I am._

_And he's also too late._

His hand covers hers. Not sexual or demanding or insistent. Just there. "Until I have no more reasons to fight…"

When he falls asleep an hour later, regret and shame crash down on her. She wishes they would bury her.

It's ten minutes before she can compose herself, before the tears slow, but for the first time in months she feels free. Though the Sharingan whispers its sweet, sweet poison to her, she finds that – at least for now – she can ignore it.

 _Not for long._  In the end, it'll overpower her once more.

But the heartbreaking happiness of seeing Naruto fighting, of seeing the boy she loves beat back the monster she's created, has given her a window, a brief respite. She'll be damned if she'll let this opportunity slip away. It might be the only one she'll get.

Invigorated, she leaps from her room.

* * *

Rooftops blur beneath her feet. There are a few people in the streets, a few open windows. Any who see her duck and hide.

A wry smile twists her lips. They fear her almost as much as they fear the boy in her bed.

A few of the more courageous among the Anbu – what's left of them – halfheartedly attempt to shadow her. Whether to protect or to kill, Sakura doesn't know. No matter. So easy is it to lose them with a few dozen illusions that she almost laughs.

_See? You like these powers, don't you._

Sakura nearly crashes into the window she tries to jump through – she tries to swear at Tobi, but all that comes out is a whimper. If this curse overtakes her at the wrong moment…if she kills…

He's not only awake, he's seated across the room. Either he never sleeps anymore, or he knew she was coming.

On his face is the purest loathing Sakura has ever seen directed at her.

"Shikamaru, I need your help."

His expression does not change.

Sakura takes a shuddering breath as the Sharingan's curse stabs her mind.  _Hold on, Sakura. Just a few more minutes_. "Shikamaru, I know how to end this. If we work together, we can push Naruto…"

She trails off. She can't tell if she's imagining it or if his eyes really do contain an ounce of pity.  _Of course not. He knows what I am._ "Even mad, Sakura, you're too smart to think I will believe anything you say. But we both know I have no choice but to listen to you. I'd even listen to you if I had a choice, because I know that this madness of Naruto's, this madness of  _yours_ , is as natural as an artificial man."

He  _has_ to notice her flinch at the word "artificial", but he doesn't react. Sakura blinks.  _Of course_. _He's Shikamaru_. "You know he's here."

The genius merely folds his arms across his bare chest. "Zetsu's presence near the village isn't my concern. With the war over and the rest of Akatsuki destroyed, he's not a threat to Konoha anymore. You, on the other hand,  _are_. Why do you think I'll help you?"

Sakura's eyes widen.  _So Shikamaru_ doesn't _know everything_?  _Zetsu is the only reason both Naruto and I are alive. Without his healing, I'd never have done what I've done. It would have ended._

_This is all part of his plan. If ever there was a threat –_

Dark splotches shatter her vision.

When she comes to, she's on the ground. Shikamaru stands above her, unmoving and unmoved. She can imagine what he's thinking, what he's feeling. He'll never help her, the way things are.

_Why should you? You see what I've done in Naruto's name, what he's done in mine. We're a plague on the shinobi world, he and I, and there's no way to see past that._

_But there's something you need to know. About_ exactly _what this creature said to me._

So she tells him.

Shikamaru listens as she explains what she wants to do. What she needs to do. He says nothing, but he listens.

Sakura leaves uncertain. If he doesn't help her, or if he can't think of a plan, there's nothing left for Konoha. For the world. Everything Naruto wanted will mean nothing.

When she sees the messenger hawk fly, her heart flies with it until her cursed burden, squeezing her lungs, throws her into unconsciousness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy shipping! Part 2.


	9. Chapter 9

_**Two hundred ninety-seven days after War's End…** _

**Naruto:**

A day comes when Naruto  _knows_  that what he sees is real.

Rock Lee is dead, and Ino and Chouji, and Might Guy and Tenten and Kurenai, and Sai. Dozens, scores, hundreds of others. Entire clans. They have died so many times in his various realities that he cannot be sure how they passed, only that they have.

Tsunade is dead, too. He can't recall actually killing her even once, so it might have been Shizune, whom he definitely  _did_  kill when she tried to poison his dinner, or Sakura, who suggested that he remain Hokage despite his varied objections.

_Sakura._

He has become increasingly certain that she is the only person he can rely upon in this madness. No matter what else happens in his uncertain world, she is there. She has never tried to kill him, never shown him anything but friendship, love, sharing in his grief.

Aiding him when the madness clouds his thoughts.

She looks as if she's aged twenty years, and not well. The Sharingan ( _when did she take it from me?_ ) twists her exhausted expression, giving her an arrogant air he knows she does not own. It is a burden, not an advantage.

He glances over to where she stands by the window of the Hokage's office. After all this, she's still beautiful.

Sakura stirs. Turning to face him, she gives that curdled twist of her lips she always gives him, a cross between a dreamy smile and a heartsick grimace.

"They're here, Naruto."

He nods. The reasons for his guests' presence is lost in his hazy memory, but it doesn't matter. Their arrival presents an opportunity, for the current state of affairs cannot continue.

_I thought I had ended the cycle of hatred, but in its place I only set up a new one. A cycle of peace. A cycle of death._

It is with these thoughts that, on this day, he walks out to meet his visitors.

The Sand marches into the village, thousands strong, cloaked in tans and browns and whites. They look like an army of phantoms, clouds of dust masking their steps and blending with their attire. It is as if the desert itself has entered the Leaf, sweeping through the rundown streets, nature's judgment coming to bring justice.

And at its head, a man with crimson robes and a container full of sand, a wary stance and a purposeful stride.

Gaara narrows his eyes at the sight of him, and instantly Naruto knows that the man he faces is no longer a friend.  _Very well._

But Gaara is…was…like him. Chained by his village, an outcast, but one who lashed out in pain and rage rather than disguised his loneliness with laughter and pranks.

The flicker of an idea crosses his thoughts –  _his_  thoughts, he realizes as he steps forward, not the thoughts of what has possessed him for so long. He clings to that thought, knowing that Gaara is the key. If he can explain this madness…

But the Kazekage's expression could freeze a sun. It's quite clear that the man is out for blood. Naruto needs to  _force_  him to listen. He doesn't know what he'll say, but if he doesn't speak now he may never get another chance.

He nods a greeting –

A shadow brushes his thoughts, the Kyuubi snarls, and for a terrifying, mind-numbing instant, Naruto forgets his own name.

Gasping, he scrambles to collect himself, but his mind slips and the words leave his grasp. Tensing up, he retreats into himself, searching for the shadow. Though weakened and no longer entirely hidden from him, it's elusive, evading him with ease.

Frustrated, he looks up.

The moment is gone. Gaara brushes past him without a word, without another glance, and Naruto realizes that is it not simply their friendship that has passed. Their entire prior relationship is now irrelevant. The Nine-tails Jinchuuriki is nothing more than a nameless, faceless threat.

One that Gaara will attempt to eradicate without a second thought, given the slightest opening. The entire army of the Sand will follow in his wake. And Naruto knows that when it happens, when they assail him, he will slaughter them to a man. He will kill Gaara in cold blood and be justified, for the man attacked him first. And the cycle will continue – the peace of the grave will consume the world.

 _I need to break it. I need to break_ free.

But he cannot do it alone.

**Shikamaru:**

Shikamaru Nara is a genius, but every idiot knows that these days, waking up with Naruto Uzumaki standing over you is  _not_  a good sign.

Struggle is troublesome and ultimately pointless – his father ( _may he rest in peace_ ) attempted to use shadow techniques on Naruto, not realizing that against the power of the Kyuubi ( _a tailed beast, the incarnation of hatred and power_ ), such phantasmal chains could do nothing.

But then, he couldn't have known, not even with his intelligence. None of them could have, back then.

He decides to wait.

A second passes.

In the darkness, Naruto's dim blue eye is hooded by the shadows of his hair. The green eye ( _Sakura's, once, before she took the Sharingan, the right eye that once belonged to Sasuke Uchiha, taken as punishment after his defeat_ ) glimmers dangerously.

"Shikamaru."

 _Naruto does not intend to kill me_.

He needs something – but not merely advice from a pure genius. The newly elected Hokage does not need strategy or plans these days. In the rare instances where sheer power doesn't serve him, Sakura does.

No, Naruto is seeking out a  _friend_.

_Like he even remembers the meaning of the word._

Not a friend, then…but someone he can trust, to get the job done…because he, Shikamaru, is the most likely to succeed, or because he's the only one who will understand the reason? The latter would make sense - he remembers Sakura's words about Zetsu, about a plan to control the world.

Or because Naruto has other plans that do not involve the smartest man in the village? Shikamaru's been wrong before – perhaps this is the day he dies after all.

Another second passes.

"Can I do something for you, Naruto?"

He learned months ago that subservience meant survival ( _paramount, for a meaningless death is worse than submission_ ). Ino and Chouji wouldn't listen to his pleas, and they paid the price.  _The person I've had to become, though…_

Now, months later, he longs to join them.

If he could kill Naruto, avenge their deaths, he would do so in an instant. But direct confrontation, whether head-on or subtle, is one tactic that better shinobi than he have attempted in vain.

"You brought the Sand here."

Shikamaru masters his heartbeat before its uptick can give him away. Not that it matters – Naruto is not asking a question. He has guessed…or Sakura changed her mind.

But then, how Naruto knows this is of no concern – frankly, it doesn't take a genius. Few others in the Leaf would dare contact another village now, and none have his connections, such as his close friendship with Temari ( _her sardonic grin, clasped hands as they part; he promises to visit as soon as things have settled down…_ ).

What  _is_  of concern is how the mad Hokage will respond.

But there is no threat in Naruto's voice. In fact, there's  _nothing_  in his voice, nothing but… _hmm._

"Yes, I did."

A second passes, and Shikamaru still lives.

_I see. He intends to use this. But not for personal gain – even the oddly cunning madness that overtook Naruto could not change his utter lack of subtlety. He doesn't plan. Not really, not the way I do. He goes for what he wants._

Naruto pulls up a chair, the wood scraping loudly in the frightened night. He collapses into it more than sits. "Listen. I…I need Gaara to be mad at the village."

_And he wants the Kazekage angry. One of the most powerful men in the world – a man who leads a legion of hard-eyed shinobi, sharp and loyal every one of them._

_A legion that sits on Konoha's doorstep, walks in its streets, and drinks in its bars. When did the man of peace begin to desire war? And more importantly, why?_

"He's already mad at you."

 _It's not that he wants to die…or if he does, he_ can't _. There are plenty of people here who would be happy to oblige him. But he's too strong. Even the other four kage and their armies together couldn't succeed against his might._

_Not if he still…_

An idea, glowing in his mind's sight, the faint outline of knowledge just beyond his reach.

 _No, he wants_ Gaara _angry…and at the_ village _, not at him. The source of his strength. And Sakura too..._

Naruto shakes his head. "No. Right now he is suspicious, cold, distant. But he will not confront me immediately…and we have no more time left."

The expression on Naruto's face is torn, lined with grief and memory. " _Time…_ You know, this is the first time I've been lucid in…I don't know how long. Shikamaru…we were once friends. But then the world went mad, or I did, and I had control I was never meant to have, and then I lost it, lost  _everything_. And I…"

The fire in his borrowed green eye is gone, and his gaze is soft and sad as he smiles at Shikamaru.

_Lucid…but he cannot guarantee he will be so in the morning. Naruto knows what must be done, but he cannot make himself believe it. So he needs Gaara._

_And me. The strategist. The pragmatist. The genius._

"I will end it."

The note of finality rings in Shikamaru's ears.

Konoha's resident genius cannot control his reaction this time. He manages to restrict it to the mere raise of an eyebrow, but inside his mind explodes with possibilities.

And answers.

The Sharingan ( _and its absence_ ), the conflicting orders ( _and their results_ ), Hinata's words and Sasuke's attack and Sakura's mood ( _and Naruto's fall from our hero to our destroyer_ )…all the deaths, all the madness, the gradual, horrifying decay of Konoha after the victory over – Sakura, asking Shikamaru to call the Sand, visibly struggling against her borrowed Sharingan's influence – and Gaara, the man whose childhood was  _remarkably_  similar to Naruto's. The one person left who might be able to reach him, give him the proper prodding.

It all points to one explanation and one path forward. One outcome.

One conclusion.

Naruto, of course, doesn't know what is required. He can't know it. Insane and brutal, he's still the idealist driven by his dreams, his goals, his hopes, and right now he might just be poised to see them through once more.

All he needs a master of the fine detail.

 _You were right to come to me, Naruto. You and she both. I still hate you and everything you've done, but I alone, out of everyone in Konoha, in the_ world _…I'll start a war for you._


	10. Chapter 10

_**Two hundred ninety-nine days after War's End…** _

**Temari:**

Somehow, a routine barroom scuffle turns into a pitched battle that leaves fourteen shinobi dead. An argument that should never have escalated, not even in this tension, not without orders from either Kage. Twenty seconds, and they're gone before the dust settles.

Thirty more are wounded. The survivors limp away, shooting dark looks behind them. They return home to nurse their wounds, calling the medics to bring them comfort or, in some cases, desperate medical techniques that only the deceased Tsunade could wield.

Tsunade, or her protégé.

But Sakura is nowhere to be found, and several more die in the night.

Despite her youth, Temari has plenty of experience. She's well aware that bloodshed in the ninja world is like summoning the wind. Once you unleash it, it cannot be controlled or contained, only weathered. If you can't weather it, you die. Simple.

She'd have thought Konoha, with its promises of a new direction, would be able to overlook a drunken quarrel. She'd assumed that its progressive direction would lead the ninja world to a new beginning, a time of cooperation instead of distrust.

If only.

The word spreads. Taunts and wary glares replace greetings. A shinobi fails to arrive at a meeting and the suspicion intensifies. Though the woman is merely late, the damage is done. When the first alleyway murder occurs, no one is surprised.

Fights in the streets turn deadly. Duels are called, but their seconds have no honor. The results are bloodbaths, the only noise to break the night's eerie silence.

One of the Sand's assigned residences explodes in the early hours of the dawn. A dozen young shinobi are slain; the remainder swear vengeance on their hosts.

Morning. Teams gather in the town square. For the Leaf, their hospitality has once again been repaid with blood. To the Sand, their one-time friends have followed their Hokage into madness.

In everyone's eyes, there is one, inevitable conclusion.

But a chuunin of the Leaf, seeking desperately to stem the tide of rage, halts a fight in the square. The three older men turn on him, but the boy's rasengan slams into the ground and they leap away.

Shinobi pause, eyeing with suspicion the boy who has appeared in their midst. He cuts a striking figure with his wild dark hair and Sarutobi features. He turns a furious gaze on the assembled combatants.

But his words are much gentler than his face.

He speaks of the hopes of his grandfather, of a kind old man who extended the hand of friendship to outsiders. He speaks of the sacrifices of his uncle, of the allied forces in the Fourth War. "It runs in my blood, you see. Sorrow, conflict, vengeance…we know it exists, but that isn't all that we are. It's our job to protect, not to destroy. We've all lost loved ones…remember  _why_  we lost them. They wanted a safer world and a bright future."

He speaks of an idea, of a dream his young teacher gave him…of peace, of camaraderie, of a friendship that could end war forever. "Because of him, someday, I will be the seventh Hokage."

Weapons remain still.

Then young Matsuri, limbs trembling, expression twisted in anguish, staggers forward.

"I remember, Leaf. My friends were killed this morning. Three girls who never saw it coming, never stood a chance. A boy who didn't want to fight. Tell your dream to  _them_."

Her johyo cracks out, lashing against the surprised boy's chest. He stumbles, blood spraying from the wound. The johyo circles Matsuri in sinuous flight before whipping out again, this time burrowing into his gut and slicing through his spine.

Konohamaru falls, his dream dying in his eyes.

Then the bystanders bellow, weapons move, and Temari finds herself in the middle of a full-scale war.

 _The wind has been unleashed_.

A chuunin runs at her, screaming a battle cry, and Temari pushes the thought out of her mind. No time to ask how it came to this, or to wonder what comes next. There is only battle.

A flick of her wrist opens his torso from neck to navel. He stops dead, staring at her as he fumbles for his spilling entrails. Temari brushes past him, summoning a quick gust that sends several shinobi flying.

Her fan snaps open, and a quick slash nearly decapitates a pair of enemy jounin. She's moving now, stirring up a breeze with each lunge, a breeze she can harness with her chakra to rip into her foes. Again and again, each step a strike, each strike a kill.

_Leaves live at the mercy of the wind._

But it's not enough…and that's not what she's here for.

Flipping high above a pair of battling shinobi, Temari perches atop a roof overlooking the square. The dust smothering the square is red; within, blurred shadows rip into each other. And still more shinobi leap into the slaughter. It's the scene of a nightmare made real, ten times worse than the invasion of nearly four years ago.

_Gaara, we've failed._

And there's no misunderstanding this time, no manipulative outsider to excuse the violence. This is clear, direct, personal. It will end when the last shinobi falls.

_If it's any consolation…no one is leaving this square alive. I can try to stall the war. Like starting a second fire to starve a larger one. Or we'll all burn._

It's a hollow thought, but she clings to it. She takes a deep breath, lifts her fans, and unleashes the storm.

Or at least, she tries to. She can't move.

Dread replaces her calm, a helpless panic at the knowledge that she is dead.

There's only one jutsu she knows of that could hold her fast like this, that could creep up and bind her without even a fight, and only one shinobi left in Konoha who can wield it.

"Temari."

He's only a few feet behind her, his expression bored as ever, a hand lazily extended toward her. Palm up, it could be a gesture of goodwill if not for the shadow attached to his fingertips.

 _Her_  shadow.

Shikamaru cocks his head. "You look good."

His conversational demeanor and placid expression ignite her rage. Gritting her teeth, she yearns to strike at him. " _You_  called us here. Is this  _your_  doing?"

"Ah." His calm flickers out like a weak flame, and Temari almost wishes she could take the words back, if only to avoid seeing the awful hopelessness in his smile. "No. At least, I didn't know when I sent the letter. But I suspected. And then, when Naruto woke me and told me he needed war…"

Shock.

 _How_ could _you?_

He is a master of shadows, a shrewd strategist the likes of which the shinobi world has never seen. He is a genius beyond her comprehension; his intelligence knows only the bounds he has set for it. Yet of all the people she knew, of all the subtle, distrusting, backstabbing shinobi in the world…

She can only mouth the question on her lips.

"Because it had to happen," Shikamaru sighs, his dark eyes never leaving hers. "Because this isn't how it should be. I've seen the madness that took Naruto – it's not his own. And he doesn't want this – he knows what it is, he recognizes its power, but something's keeping him from fighting against it."

He looks out toward the rising sun. "Once you've taken a step down the path, you can never really come back. But every path has an end. Naruto told me he'll bring it to this one. He just needs a…bit of a push."

Temari growls.  _Idiot_. "And you  _trust_  him? Maybe this is exactly what…his madness…wants. How do you know he's not manipulating you now?"

She scowls at his raised eyebrow.  _Don't mock me!_  "Shikamaru, no one's perfect, not even you. You can't know how this will turn out."

He nods, beckoning her shadow over. Jerkily, she follows, though she tries to fight it. "You're right. I don't know. I can't know. But I did the things I've done anyway. Why would I do that?"

Folding his hands over hers, he locks her in a gaze so arresting that for a moment she wonders if he's discovered a new jutsu. Her only clue to the contrary is the dumbstruck look on his own face.

She regains herself first. " _You_ , gambling?"

Blinking, he shrugs. "Might as well, right? I just don't want to continue in a world that's just so…"

"Troublesome," Temari finishes for him, rolling her eyes.

At least she knows where he stands, now. Or maybe she did before, too, and only her fear made her hesitate.

Shikamaru's a thinker, a commander, and he  _cares_. He'd never risk his entire village on a gamble if he could see any other way…and if  _he_  doesn't see another way, there probably isn't one.

She can trust him – he's putting everything on the line, knowing he won't survive, hoping that somehow, things will turn out for the best. He didn't come up here to kill her, but to die with her. It changes nothing…but for some reason, her grim desperation is gone. She feels almost at peace.

Then she scowls. Did she  _really_  come that close to calling  _him_  'perfect'? To his  _face_?  _Ew_.

"If that's what you want, then give me a moment to finish up here and we'll be on our way."

Shikamaru smiles, a real smile, the kind that she trusts almost as much as she does Gaara. "Temari, I hold your shadow," he drawls, seemingly bored as ever. "You're mine to command. Imagine if your fear had been justified. Right now, I could kill you in a thousand ways before you have time to blink. I could turn you against your troops, win this war in my Hokage's name. Aren't you afraid?"

Above the slaughter, in the bloody dawn, a smirk flits across Temari's face. "Of you? Please. You couldn't beat me if you  _tried_."

He laughs.

"Besides, you're not holding my shadow anymore."

They glance down at their intertwined fingers, and to her astonishment Shikamaru reddens. For a long moment they stand like that, studying their clasped hands, and Temari allows herself a moment to wonder what their friendship might have looked like if all this hadn't happened.

_Right. The battle._

Temari sniffs, pointedly looking away from Shikamaru. That's always how it is around him. She, the most tactically-minded kunoichi the Sand have had in years, can never quite fully outmatch this stubborn, lazy, arrogant genius.

_But then, there are worse things than being his equal._

Her fans twirl around them in an intricate dance, faster and faster, whipping the wind into an uncontrollable frenzy that scours the square clean. The hurricane does not discriminate between Leaf and Sand, combatant and civilian. It's nothing less than the wrath of nature itself, come to claim another village.

When the wind finally dies, only red sand remains.

**Kankuro:**

The stairs to the Hokage's office are slick with blood – an eerie sign. He's stumbled on a few bodies, their terrified eyes like glass in taut masks, but not nearly enough to explain the constant  _squish_  of Kankuro's combat boots. The emptiness of the place raises the hair on the back of his neck.

It's a miracle the building itself still stands, given what it represents to both factions. Occasionally, an explosion rattles the floor, but otherwise it seems free from combat. Besides, these are mere aftershocks compared to the one that devastated the village center.

_Temari…_

He'd seen the debris hurtle into the sky, felt the concussion of air that signified her trump card. He hopes she survived it, but deep down he knows the truth. She wouldn't use it unless the battle was going ill – its destructive power doesn't recognize friend or foe.

And from what she's told him about it, that jutsu has no range, no remote detonation. Temari would never let herself be anywhere but at its core.

But Kankuro doesn't have time for grief. The war continues and his mission with it. One way or another, Naruto is going to die.

_Before he can get to my living sibling._

The doors to the Hokage's office are strong oak, but that means nothing to Kankuro.

He bursts into the room, his puppets crashing through the walls, spraying wood and stone across the floorboards. A bookshelf topples to the floor as he scans the room. He can almost hear his skin humming from the amount of chakra he's using.

Naruto is not here.

A growl rips from his throat.  _Fuck._

Kankuro rushes to the window. Immediately he wishes he hadn't – fire billows from the wreckage of the village. Except in the center, in the village square, where Temari had been. Sand drifts in an otherwise empty space three hundred yards wide.

 _Damn you all_.

"I'd wondered who Gaara would send. Glad to see I guessed right."

It's her.

Breathing deep, he turns to face her. "And why is that?"

Sakura stands in the wreckage of the door. She's wearing a knee-length red jacket, fastened across her torso. Kankuro notes that her hand is on her belt and tenses. If he can't take out Naruto, Sakura will have to do.

She's looking at him intently, her eyes clear, and he can't help but remember that she saved him when no one else could. He'll fight. He won't enjoy it.

 _As if any of this is enjoyable_.

Sakura ignores his question. "Naruto will be here soon. I asked him to come, you know. I'd like to see him one more time, before…you know. No. You don't."

_Unbelievable._

His puppets tremble on chakra strings, but he holds them back. Her shinobi talents put her only a step below her legendary teammates. Even with his puppets this fight will take every ounce of skill he possesses.

As if she can hear him, Sakura shakes her head. A smirk twists her face.  _Condescending bitch_.

"From one puppeteer to another, Kankuro, you should give them a little more leeway. Of course, then they might start to  _rule_ , but as long as you can control the outcome…"

Kankuro stares, his nerves forgotten in his shock. The implications of her statement are obvious. " _You_  did this?"

Sakura laughs – a high-pitched, maniacal laugh that contrasts horribly with the pain on her face. "Oh no, not everything. Not even most of it…not really. Naruto has always danced to his own tune. I simply added some strings. Er, not  _me_ , but…well, it doesn't matter."

She smiles, and Kankuro sees in it the depth of her despair. And how she revels in it. "This war between Leaf and Sand, however…I  _may_  have had a greater role in that."

Her madness staggers him. "But  _why_?"

"Because this peace isn't real," she says, spreading her hands before her.  _Is she pleading?_  "Because if I don't, the world will limp on to the tune of those who wanted it to despair. Because it's…it's the only way I can save Naruto."

_Ah._

For a moment, he can't help but be moved by the depth of her feeling. Even insane, even evil, she's done it all for a cause, for a friend, just like the cocky, idealistic boy who'd been outcast and hero and destroyer.

Only for a moment, though.

He raises his hands. The puppets jolt to alertness, poised to strike at his command. "You want to save Naruto, then. I understand that. But Gaara wants him dead. I'd ask, but I doubt you'll let me go to him – and if you think I'm letting him join you here, think again.

"I respect you, Sakura. For that, I won't hold back."

Her brow furrows, and for a moment she looks genuinely confused. "Kankuro. Do you think I came here intending to fight?"

One of her eyes flares red.

Ice in his spine. He draws in a breath like fire, but it's not enough, and standing is like trying to hold up a mountain. Falling backward, nothing to stop him – except for her waiting arms, the only thing holding him up.

 _An illusion_.  _But I could feel her chakra…unless she...redirected..._

The room flickers, and the Sakura before him crumbles into flesh-colored designs. The Uchiha crest, repeated a dozen times, taunts him before the pieces sink through the rocky floor.

Rocky floor?

 _Not necessarily just now, either. I might have been trapped in it since I entered the room. The building, even_. _If I'm even in the right building, or indoors at all_. _How far…_

It doesn't matter. Nor does the question of how Sakura obtained a Sharingan, or how she learned to use it. He's dead, and the next few seconds are mere detail.

There's still one thing he can do, though.

Gathering the last of his chakra, he throws everything he has along the wires. His puppets jerk to attention…but none move to his aid. Lifeless, they sit idly as their master's blood pours onto the floor, as he sags against his killer, his own strings cut.

They'll do no more than sit there while he dies…but they're watching.

_Gaara, you need to know. He'll be here. You're the only…_

Her breath is on his ear, the only heat he can feel as the venom rushes through his veins.

"You're strong, Kankuro. Thank you. Please, let this be enough."

_She…did she…?_

His world darkens. The last words he hears are his one-time savior's, delivered in a choked whisper as he slides off her poisoned blade.

" _Come to me, Gaara. I'm waiting._ "

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Definitely my favorite chapter. I like Temari.


	11. Chapter 11

_**Two hundred ninety-nine days after War's End…** _

**Gaara:**

Four years ago, the Jinchuuriki named Gaara would have relished this slaughter. Three years ago, he would have been conflicted, shocked. Six months ago, it would have horrified the young Kazekage, and he would have given his life to prevent it.

Now, he can only watch, unable to understand, as the Leaf and Sand rip each other apart.

He should've known it would be a trap.

Temari,  _Temari_ , she told him to believe, reassured him that her source was good. He learned years ago to listen to his sharp, courageous older sister in matters of judging the intent of others. He took her advice and led his people here. He even called the other kages to Konoha to take down the rogue village.

And now she's dead.

It kills him to just  _sit_  here while his people – all those hopeful believers who trusted him, followed his cause – die in a sandstorm of insanity.

Knowing that he could've waited makes it worse. The other villages could be days, perhaps only hours away.

The empty gnawing in his stomach is the short gap between confidence in his abilities and pride.

Figures approach. Two, three, six. Gaara flexes his fingers, but quickly realizes they're not coming to attack. He can tell a lot from the vibrations in the ground, from the fall of a footstep on his precious sand and grit. These figures stumble toward him with awkward motions: not injured, lacking direction yet somehow purposeful. Not living beings.

Kankuro's puppets.

They have no strings.

The ice in Gaara's blood cracks.  _So they got you too, Kankuro_.

He doesn't need them to tell him what happened. What with the filthy sixth Hokage's – Gaara can't bring himself to call the monster by his real name – purge through Konoha, there are few shinobi who could match Kankuro strength for strength. He wasn't overwhelmed by force, or a puppet would have been destroyed. If he'd made it to…the Hokage…none of his puppets would have survived.

No, Kankuro was ambushed, taken by surprise. And from the reports Temari gave him, there's only one genjutsu user left to do it.

_The Hokage was not the only one who led Konoha to its murderous rage._

"Where did she kill him?"

One of the puppets lifts an arm. It points toward the Hokage faces carved into the mountainside.

_At the very least, I can give Kankuro's spirit peace._

**Sakura:**

From her vantage point, it's clear to Sakura that the Leaf will lose.

Not at first. It's to her incredible surprise that the battle below may well end in Konoha's favor. She'd had Shikamaru call the Sand because out of all the villages, they had the most recent combat experience against the shinobi of the Leaf. With so many of Konoha's best dead, at her hand or at Naruto's, it should have been an easy contest.

She'd underestimated how ferociously her village fought when under siege. No prisoners, no mercy. For the civilians too, which explains why they're taking up arms and joining the fight in the streets.

Including her parents.

_I will tell you one more time, kunoichi. Get in the fight._

No. She's holding herself back, waiting for Zetsu's inevitable appearance and ensuring that Naruto himself doesn't get involved. And yet even without him, without her, Konoha is going to win.

Or they would, if they were to fight just the Sand.

Sakura swallows hard, pushing down the sting of her tears.  _Konoha, you're so strong_.  _So brave._ _What have I done to you?_

The dust clouds in the distance herald Konoha's doom. For her to see it as one mass from here, there must be tens of thousands of them.

_How many did you call, Gaara? The other three kage? The small villages too? Has Naruto replaced Tobi as the greatest threat to the ninja world?_

The darkness in her mind snarls, slamming into her consciousness so hard that she sees stars, but Sakura holds firm. She doesn't have to hold out much longer, and that knowledge gives her the strength she needs. Eventually, Konoha will fall. Naruto will stand alone against the world.

When he sees his dream has failed, he'll act.

 _And what will he do, kunoichi? Infinite Tsukoyomi was_ my _solution to a failed dream. What makes the fox boy any different?_

Panic. Sakura growls, hoping to hide it from the Sharingan's curse.  _Neither you nor I will be here to see it_.

Laughing shadows dance in her mind.  _You have no idea, do you? Floundering in the dark, praying someone can show you the path. If you could've convinced –_

It falls silent. A sharp prickling stabs her Sharingan, little specks of dust floating on the breeze. Sakura blinks a few times reflexively, but when the pain only intensifies she realizes this isn't dust in her eye. It's sand.

She grins in spite of the pain she knows is coming.  _Goodbye, Tobi_.  _This is how we die._

When the grains of sand rocket through the Sharingan, piercing the eye a hundred times and tearing it to a pulp, she screams.

* * *

When she recovers, she can't move. A blessing.

Not that she can't move, but that she's alive at all. There's pain in her unseeing Sharingan – now a bloody socket, judging by the fluids running down her cheek – but otherwise she's unharmed. Gaara must have questions if he's taking her prisoner before executing her. She'll have time to tell him what he has to do…and hope he listens.

 _This is it_.

"Sakura." Gaara's voice is as dry and relentless as the desert he's come from. "You are dead. The sand around you will be your coffin. How much I hurt you before that moment depends on what you tell me about your lover. Now, where is he?"

Sakura waits for the voice to comment, but Tobi says nothing. It takes her several seconds to remember that with her Sharingan destroyed, he probably was as well.

Unable to stop herself, she starts giggling. She'd forgotten how light it felt to have only one mind in her body. "He's gone."

Agony lances through her side, choking off her laughter. "No games, Sakura." Gaara's voice is impassive, but his red eyes are like fire. "Naruto is gone?"

"No," Sakura gasps, coughing up blood.  _This wound will kill me soon, unless Gaara lets me heal it...not likely_. "Tobi. Sharingan destroyed, when you did, I mean - Naruto's coming here."

Gaara's expression turns colder. "Good. I will kill -"

"No."

More sand pierces her side. Gritting her teeth, Sakura tries to writhe away from it, but the sand and dirt hold her body firm. Gaara's words are gloating. "And who will stop me?"

"Don't...fight him," Sakura says. "Show him. What he did. What -"

"What are you talking about?" With tears blinding one eye and blood replacing the other, Sakura can't say what he looks like, but he at least  _sounds_ confused.  _Good. He's listening._

Taking as deep a breath as her sand coffin will allow, she fixes a stare on Gaara's blurry face. "Even with this curse, he's...still an idealist. Naruto still fights for his dream. Not because he...truly believes he is, but...because he can't go on if he doesn't. Convince him. Show him what he's done. To his dream. He'll do the rest. He has to."

Silence. Sakura focuses on blocking out the ever-increasing pain flashing through her torso.

After a minute, Gaara clicks his tongue. "And if he doesn't relent, then -"

" _He will_. He'll be  _alone_ , Gaara. Think about that."  _He has to, Gaara. I don't know what he will do, what he_ can _do, but Naruto is the only one who has a chance of undoing all this._

_Or at least bringing it to an end._

"I...see." The wind picks up, whistling. "I'll talk to him first. If it helps us defeat him, I will thank you. Until then...go to hell, Sakura."

Sakura shakes her head, maybe to clear her vision, maybe in refusal. She can feel every grain of sand pressing against her body, which suddenly feels awfully fragile. She can't move a muscle, no matter how she strains.

She's not ready. Not for this.

"Gaara, wait, you can't–"

The sand squeezes, crushing her body from every side.

 _Crunch_.


	12. Chapter 12

_**Two hundred ninety-nine days after War's End…** _

**Naruto:**

He's numb.

"She really is beautiful, isn't she?"

No, she was. Beautiful and kind and cleverer than him by half, with the most resilient spirit he'd ever seen in a shinobi. A strong girl he'd been humbled to know and love.

What she is now is crushed to death, her expression frozen in an agonized shriek. Her face is covered in blood and other bodily fluids forced out by the implosion of her sand coffin. It hasn't all dried; some of it still rolls down her cheeks and neck to be absorbed by the sand that killed her.

Dead. Gone. The girl who'd always fought for him. If he'd been here just a few minutes sooner…

…if Sakura hadn't woven a genjutsu around him while he slept. If she hadn't killed his shadow clones just before the fighting started.

_What were you doing here, Sakura?_

"I wanted you to see her. My Sand Waterfall Funeral is not kind to its victims, as you know. She wanted to see you too –"

Her green eye, wide with horror, watches him sightlessly.

"—but after the damage she's done to my village, to my people, I can't say I had the patience."

He's shaking, and he can't stop. He's falling to pieces. "She saved Kankuro. She helped rescue you. She helped save the world."

Gaara's jaw drops. Then he laughs, bewildered. "Still a total idiot. She  _killed_  Kankuro less than an hour ago. And she started this war. Konoha was set to prosper, ready to become great, and the two of you brought it down. And you're bringing the rest of the world with you. How you can still say the things you do is beyond me."

Naruto lets out a ragged sigh. "She's done all she could to…"

He can't finish his sentence. It hurts too much.  _Not her too. Not after all this._

The crimson-haired Kazekage sighs, running a hand through his hair. He doesn't even have a scratch on him, Naruto notes. "Hmm. She didn't put up any kind of a fight. I'm not sure it would've made a difference, but…this is oddly unsatisfying."

Naruto's mind buzzes. "Unsatisfying."

"Your reaction, for one thing." Gaara starts to pace, watching Naruto out of the corner of his eye. Behind him, the dust clouds churned up by the other villages start to take shape, individual figures visible in the artificial fog. "I expected that this would be where, in a flying rage, you try to take me down."

Oh, his anger is building. Slowly, but with every word Gaara says it burns through more layers of shock and pain. When it erupts, he'll destroy the Sand with divine wrath. He'll destroy them all, lay waste to their villages. He knows he can do it. He knows he doesn't want to.

All he needs is a catalyst.

_Say it, Gaara. Say it._

"I don't get it. Either of you. She was the same way. Why would you start a war if you're not going to fight in it? I thought she was challenging me to a duel, but when I got here she didn't taunt me. Care to explain?"

Naruto blinks, his rising anger halted.  _What_?

She didn't fight, but not because she was ambushed? Because she'd let him? She had to have known Gaara, the Kazekage, would try to kill her. And that he'd succeed - her physical strength and intelligence never could have beaten his cunning use of sand.

_Why?_

"Did she talk to you?"

"Er...yes, she did. She said…a lot." His voice dips as he looks away from Naruto. For the first time since Naruto arrived on the scene, Gaara appears thoughtful. "Strange things. That you're an idealist. That you're still fighting for peace, for your village. She seemed to think you'd understand, now that you're alone."

And in a moment of blinding clarity, Naruto does understand.

 _Oh, Sakura_.

He sees all too well. What he's done. Those who've died in his quest for peace. Was it really peace he'd sought?

Gaara keeps talking, but Naruto tunes him out.

No, he does want peace. He always has. But it's led to this. Konoha destroyed. His friends and peers and mentors dead: many at his hand, the rest at Sakura's. She's dead too. The villages united against him - probably their last common cause. There can be no trust among villages after what he's done to the ninja world. Even within villages, they'll always wonder who the next  _Naruto_  will be.

So now he needs to -

The other kages are here. Onoki, his wrinkled face furious and betrayed. Mei, her expression as heated as the lava she'll soon wield against him. And the Raikage, his face set in something deeper than hate. Naruto vaguely recalls hearing a report that the man had had to execute Killer B, who never once believed that his friend Naruto could do so much wrong...

_I tried so hard. Everything I did, I did for peace. But I was wrong. For some reason, it all went wrong. I have to take it back._

Naruto bows his head. He's failed.

And for the first time in his life, he sees no way to win.

If Sakura were here, she might remind him that he's never given up on Sasuke. Hinata would support him, tell him to believe in himself. Kakashi, Sai, Shikamaru, Tsunade, all those he's influenced over the last few years. Even Sasuke would push him to try harder.

But he's alone. A monster who destroyed the peace he himself created.

He can't bear it. Despair squeezes his heart and lets his hopes drain out into the sand.

And because he's a boy of action, he can't let it stand.

He falls to a knee, placing a hand on the ground. Focusing, he feels an  _enormous_ amount of chakra somewhere close - and a familiar enemy. Good. He can use this. Kurama -  _yes, I'm restoring you to your other half_ \- senses his intent, and the demon's wave of approval shudders through Naruto. There's a small chance that he can warp this world, harness the chakra for whatever Zetsu is building to undo the evil they've wrought. A small chance it works.

If it doesn't, the world won't be around to care.

"My clan developed this technique," he begins, interrupting Gaara. "I was there the night my father used it." Four kages glare at him, their forces still moving to surround him. Even without hijacking the nearby chakra source, he could wipe them all out by himself, though the strain would probably kill him. As if that's a different outcome than what he's about to attempt.

Sakura and Shikamaru, they were the geniuses. Sasuke, too. How could the village's practical joker possibly get it right?

He doesn't care anymore. He just wants this nightmare to end.

"Reaper Death Seal."

The enemies standing before him only have a moment to register their shock before they're caught in the demon's hold.

It's a terrifying thing. Though Naruto has never seen it before, he remembers this feeling. He was in the demon's grip too, back when his father used it to destroy half of the Kyuubi. It's a touch of death...and this time, it's so much more. This time,  _he_  is the user, the controller, of this hideous, fatal energy.

His target: the world he's built.

He can feel the remnants of the Sharingan's curse, the curse that Sakura had tried to lift from him,  _Tobi's_  curse –  _it feels like lifetimes since we defeated him_  – raging against him, lashing at his mind, now blinding him, now seducing with peace, now promising power.

_Power that it no longer has._

They'd banked on the similarities, on the shared vision, to control him. To keep him from interfering with whatever plans they'd tried to put in place.

The Reaper extends its hand, palm up, for its payment. Looking into its eyes is looking through the gates of hell. It's a glimpse of the eternity he's doomed himself to if his theory is wrong.  _Too late now_.

Naruto shakes his head. It doesn't matter.

Of course Tobi didn't understand. Like Naruto, he'd wanted to be Hokage, to be accepted, but he hadn't seen who Naruto was in the beginning – hadn't seen  _why_  he strove for the things he did. Strength, Hokage, even the desire for peace…Naruto wants them, hungered for them, but they all stem from a single feeling:

He knows loneliness, and he fears it.

" _Seal_."


	13. Chapter 13

_**Four days after War's End...** _

**Sakura:**

Her head feels like a pack of Naruto's toad summons are trying to break out of it.

Groaning, Sakura rolls onto her back. The movement ignites a tight fire in her side, drawing out a pained gasp. She curls up, opting to wait out the pain rather than risk aggravating its source.

She waits a long time.

It's an open wound – not an old injury, from the feel of it. Too fresh to be anything but recently given. A quick check confirms it, her hand covered in blood when she draws it away from her side.

_Serious. Not fatal, though. I have time._

Time that she takes. She prods thin flows of chakra toward the wound. Weakened too much to heal it completely, Sakura can at least give herself some field relief.

Sakura blinks, surprised by how impossibly bright the sun is. Had it been so high in the sky when she'd…when it had…what  _had_  happened, anyway? It had been dark, not quite daybreak, when  _they'd_  been –

Before she untangles her worry she is already on her feet, head whipping around, seeking out her precious teammates. Her wound throbs, sharp and insistent, but she forces herself to think past it.

There is Sasuke, his shirt shredded to reveal wicked scars and burns on his chiseled torso. Once, the sight might have made her heart race, the scars have brought her near to tears. Now, she spares him only a long glance.

–  _chakra crackling in his fist, then in her gut, his dark eyes wide with pain and anger and guilt_ –

And there's Kakashi, shakily pulling up his mask to cover his now-useless Sharingan. He is still one of Konoha's elite shinobi, one of the world's greatest warriors, but even from this distance Sakura knows that he will never replicate ninjutsu again.

–  _standing before her and Naruto, black fire raging around him as he falls to a knee, struggling to contain the deadly force_  -

But he can take care of himself, even if he has an infuriatingly casual way of doing it, and besides, Sakura has passed him, her attention already on –

_Naruto._

At the cliff's edge, the final member of their team stands apart.

His yellow hair, unruly at the best of times, is matted and charred. Burns cover his exposed skin – some from Sasuke's fire, but many also with the distinctive melted look caused by too much of the Kyuubi's chakra. His weight rests entirely on his right leg; his left is bent at an angle so wrong it's a miracle it's still attached.

A lump forms in her throat. Whether because of the extent of his injuries ( _hadn't he bonded completely with the Kyuubi?_ ) or the significance of his victory or the mere sight of her best friend, she does not know. But one thing is certain: it's over.

Everything their team has suffered, all the pain they've endured, all their journeys and trials and victories and failures…it's all over. Done. They've won. The knowledge makes her giddy.

"Naruto!" she calls, breathless with relief.

He flinches at the sound of her voice but does not turn.

Sakura raises an eyebrow, but it is easy to dismiss his reaction. He has just fought the greatest battle he will ever fight, against the rival he set his sights on more than three years ago. The last battle he needed to achieve his dream.  _Of course he's out of sorts_.

She smiles anew and hobbles toward him, ignoring the pain every step brings. If her feet could match her heart, she'd be skipping to him.

_You fulfilled your promise, Naruto._

"Naruto…so, I –"

Stumbling, a rapid turn, and suddenly his weight plows into her, nearly taking her to the ground.

Alarmed by his reaction, her wound screaming in protest, Sakura folds her arms around him, gently pulling him against her. His breathing is fast and uneven, signaling exertions that make no sense in his current state.

"Naruto? What's wrong?"

His body shakes within her embrace, his arms tightening around her as if clinging on for his life. Sakura holds him, pressing his head to her, resting her own on his shoulder. She tries to soothe his panic with deep, even breaths, but he only clutches her more tightly.

There are no tears, no wracking sobs, no gasps or pleas or muttered curses. His struggle is silent but for a whispered, " _I…I don't know._ "

It is then that Sakura realizes this inner storm isn't something she can defeat, that she can even understand. It isn't something even  _Naruto_ , the strongest boy she knows, can defeat. It's all he can do just to keep from shaking himself to pieces.

 _That, I can help you with_.

She holds him close, squeezes her eyes shut, weathers it for him, with him.

She'll be here for him, for as long as he needs.

Though the shaking slowly subsides, it's nearly fifteen minutes before Naruto speaks. When he does, his voice is hoarse but firm. Though but a whisper, it drowns out the rest of her world.

"Don't ever leave me alone."


End file.
